


You are all I needed, believe me

by dragon_rider



Category: The Voice (US) RPF, The Voice RPF
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Reality, Anal Sex, Breeding, Explicit Sexual Content, Hermaphrodites, Knotting, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Mpreg, Romance, True Mates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-10
Updated: 2015-10-25
Packaged: 2018-02-24 21:43:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 35,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2597453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragon_rider/pseuds/dragon_rider
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Take me home,” Adam breathes over his Alpha’s lips.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KSHillbilly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KSHillbilly/gifts).



> I’ll try to explain as succinctly as I can what an Alpha/Beta/Omega universe is so please bear with me.
> 
> A/B/O is a popular kink trope. Think about Humans with a few animalistic characteristics such as penises with knots (like dogs, which Alpha males have) and periods of time in which they are more sexually active known as heats or ruts (for Omegas and Alphas, respectively). This trope is like an exaggerated view of how our society discriminate women for being able to give birth and being overall prettier than the other two sexes in this fictional universe (Alphas and Betas). Betas are your usual brand of people; no acute senses, no especially strong sex drive. Alphas are the most physically adept and usually get everything they want only for being what they are; the stronger, dominant sex. Omegas are seen as the submissive, weaker sex. They’re the most fertile. They can be (like Alphas and Betas) either male or female. Male Omegas are capable of getting pregnant (this is usually referred to as impregnate or breed an Omega), possess sexual organs that have self-lubrication (called 'slick', I like to picture them as Hermaphrodites) and their opinion tends to be disregarded when an Alpha is involved. There are heavy aspects of rape culture at least implied in this trope. Omegas are expected to ‘mate’ (to be claimed and ‘owned’ by an Alpha for the rest of their lives) and give an Alpha a family in which the Alpha is the provider and the Omega is the caretaker, the stay-at-home housewife. 
> 
> The actual prompt I received was about Adam getting pregnant and delivering by normal birth with him as the ‘mom’ and Blake as the ‘dad’. 
> 
> The A/B/O dynamics in this story will be more progressive but the terminology will still take some getting used to. Hopefully you’ll like it ): I'm so sorry if you don't and it's disappointing.

Adam is used to ignoring his instincts. He’s a master at it, if he says so himself.

It doesn’t matter what it is—either refraining from scratching a new tattoo or refusing to look for an Alpha that could quell the painful burn inside of him during a heat, he can do it. He has years and years of practice at it and people can say anything they want but he’s happy with the way he’s chosen to lead his life. If he went back in time, he’d tell his younger self to keep doing exactly what he’s doing.

As an unmated Omega in his thirties, he’s an oddity. The most traditional members of society hate his guts; despise the fact that Adam as a successful musician has an impact in young Omegas and spends at least half of his time sending them the—often not tacit—message of doing with their lives whatever they want and to Hell with everyone else.

They want a big house with ten children and a dog and an Alpha with a fat knot to sit on who can protect them from the world? Awesome, as long as it’s what _they_ want and not what everyone _expects_ of them. There’s a big difference even though it’s often hard to figure out which one it is.

They want to settle down with a Beta or another Omega and never lose the reigns of their lives, avoid the whole dominant-possessive-will-make-you-do-everything-I-want shebang? Fantastic. That Adam can relate to more than the first option as the control freak that he is.

He’s never actually decided to ban Alphas just because they tend to be knotheads though—that’s just the way his life has gone regardless of his input since most Alphas he’s crossed paths with insist there’s something broken in him, something that makes Adam reject what he’s supposed to crave the minute Adam doesn’t bend over for them like a good little bitch.

Adam likes laughing in their faces.

“Do I look like I’m broken to you?” he asks every time, a smirk firm in place as he sashays around the Alpha in tight jeans and t-shirts that have cuts in them and are absolutely threadbare.

He loves flaunting his sexuality in everyone’s faces. He doesn’t have a problem with being an Omega; it’s what society thinks Omegas are good for that he doesn’t like. He’s been called whore many times in his life; it’s become a compliment that he likes winking at.

He loves himself; being an Omega is part of who he is. People can love him or hate him for it, Adam doesn’t give a fuck.

He’s been told there’s a tart edge to his naturally sweet Omega scent that makes it easier for Alphas to disdain him. That kinda bites, Adam isn’t going to lie about it. That tiny little detail coupled with his independent personality and give-them-hell attitude turns Adam into the least desirable Omega ever, pretty face and swell ass notwithstanding.

So yeah, he’s single. He’s seldom _not_ single. And he can live with it, he really can. Whenever he needs to get laid, he goes out and has fun. When he’s lonely, he calls his buds and has fun too. It’s not about any of those things.

And it isn’t the blinding lust what makes his heats unbearable. That Adam is used to. It’s not that either.

It’s how he’s almost too old to be a ‘ripe’ Omega any longer—and fuck that term, Adam is a _person_ , not a fucking fruit—and how he’s always wanted to have children he can dote on and teach how to live their lives at their fullest regardless of which cards they’re dealt.

Alpha, Beta or Omega, it doesn’t really matter if you know what you want. What matters is to have dreams.

Adam always wanted to have a band and travel the world. He did just that instead of presenting to the first compatible and decent Alpha that he came across.

James and Jesse are like brothers to him despite of what their pheromones can do to Adam on a bad day. His nose can be kind of enamored with them when he’s close to his heat but he isn’t.

He’s never been in love, to be honest.

That’s the one thing that makes Adam ponder—in his darkest moments that aren’t sadly always in-sync with his body screeching at him what a fucking idiot he is for depriving himself of a mate—that maybe he _is_ broken after all.

***

“Two Omegas in a panel of judges?” Adam whistles, impressed, and sasses, “Whoa, guys, whatever you’re gonna do to get some work done around here?”

Carson laughs good-naturedly and Adam likes him instantly.

Betas can be dicks sometimes, at least to him, and knowing that isn’t the case with the host helps Adam relax in his seat between the diva Christina Aguilera herself—a renowned  Omega that’s possibly one of the best singers of all time—and the very eccentric singer-producer Cee Lo Green.

“Coaches,” Carson corrects with a grin, “You guys aren’t supposed to rip the contestants a new one. You’re supposed to be mentors, to help them in their careers with your experience and expertise. And we really hope you’ll get along with each other.”

“Adam—can I call you Adam?” Christina pauses to look at him but not enough to wait for an answer. Adam doesn’t care; he’s a little starstruck by her. She can totally call him by his name, “I’m a mated Omega, you’re the one who’s going to be an issue. I heard you don’t even like taking suppressants. Do you at least have regular heats? How are you going to be able to work if you don’t?”

Adam stifles a huff and quickly backpedals in his opinion of her. He’s met his fair share of bitchy Omegas in the past but they usually have a dash of sympathy towards those subjects no matter how self-absorbed they are.

“I don’t take suppressants because I don’t like hiding who I am,” he explains, aloof. As if he’s ever going to take some stupid pill to get rid of three uncomfortable days a month in exchange of diminishing everything that makes him an Omega, “I can usually work through the first day of my heat and the last, so I’ll only take one sick day when it comes unexpected—which isn’t often, by the way.”

“You work through your heats?” Christina shrieks, scandalized.

At the same time, Cee Lo exclaims. “Brother, that is truly commendable. I’ve never known an Omega with such strong will, I’m very honored to be sitting in this room with you, getting to know you.”

Adam blinks and ducks his head, ridiculously pleased. Sometimes biology gets the best of him and it isn’t often—not often _at all_ —that an Alpha gives him a sincere compliment.

The only reason he doesn’t blush like a virgin—which he _is_ , in the most strict and stupid sense of the word since he’s had no Alpha with their knot up his ass—is because Cee Lo doesn’t smell like a compatible Alpha is supposed to on top of his mated-Alpha musk.

(Not that Adam knows shit about that smell; he’s never scented it in his life and is beginning to doubt its existence).

“Thanks, Cee Lo,” he smiles and pointedly ignores how his own scent gets sweeter at the praise, “I do what I can.”

“Which is a lot,” Cee Lo grins at him and pats his shoulder like a proud older brother would do, “You are incredible.”

Carson smiles at the exchange and nods in approval, “I knew calling you would be a good idea,” he says, “Now, guys, if you don’t mind—we need to discuss who the fourth coach is going to be. The production has a list of Betas in mind, just to play safe, but I have this really funny friend I’d like you to meet first. He could be great for the show.”

Adam sighs. He can see from a mile away that this so-called friend is an Alpha. Two Alphas and two Omegas in any show are something unheard of and Adam is all for it if it means messing up with the status quo, even if the dude ends up being a complete tool.

“Call him,” Christina states, waving a hand in dismissal, “Although you really should’ve called another mated Omega or a Beta if you were planning to have two Alphas, you know, unless he’s mated?”

Carson gives Adam an apologetic look. “No, he’s still looking for his mate. In the meantime, he’s having fun.”

 _Of fucking course_ , Adam thinks, rolling his eyes.

Somehow, it’s always perfectly okay for an Alpha to reach his thirties, his forties even while ‘waiting’—they don’t wait jack shit, mind you, have sex with anything with two legs instead—for their ‘true’ mate but if an Omega does the same it’s wrong and frowned upon.

Talking about double standards.

At least Carson knows Alphas in that position are basically playboys. Adam likes him even more because of that. It’s just his luck he doesn’t smell right either and is also mated, judging by the mating ring on his left hand. It’s harder to figure that out with Betas. They always smell the same.

“I don’t mind if he wants to think it’s his rodeo,” Cee Lo says, surprising Adam with his lack of territorial tendencies and soft scent that means he’s actually telling the truth.

He’s so not used to meeting nice people. Except for his bandmates and a couple of close friends, all he’s ever found are jackasses.

“I can deal with him,” Adam assures them with a cocky tilt of his chin, “Bring it on.”

***

Adam waits for Country superstar Blake Shelton to make an appearance tapping his foot and chatting with everyone as if they were old friends. The camaraderie between them is eerily easy. Even Christina has a nice sense of humor once you get past her ego.

The only thing he’s expecting of the meeting is for the guy not to be an utter douchebag. That would turn what could be the best job ever into a chore and he doesn’t look forward to it.

When the door finally opens and the tallest Alpha Adam has ever seen comes in, several things happen at once.

The room spins around him and he’s hit by the sudden, unmistakable scent of home, of _family_.

The Alpha whom that belongs to has a broad, well-muscled frame and long legs clad in unassuming denim and plaid. The strong line of his jaw is covered in just the right amount of stubble and his shoulders are hunched, hands in his pockets as if trying to make himself less towering instead of looming aggressively over them.

Adam is a little in love with him just for that small gesture. He’s convinced this Alpha— _his Alpha!_ —can’t be a dick if he carries himself in such a way.

The clear blue of his eyes makes Adam think he’s gone all his life without knowing exactly how his favorite color is supposed to look like.

 _Like that_ , he thinks, feeling like he’s been punched in the stomach and left with no air because the guy—fucking Hell, the guy smells like the oiling rag Adam uses to clean his guitars, like his favorite steak; like well-worn jeans and soft breeze, the one that Adam likes to think caresses his cheeks to remind him that he’s free. He smells like chocolate chips and green, fresh grass buzzing with bees and dew, with life.

Shelton is looking at him with wide, stunned eyes and the spicy scent of an Alpha seeing something that he likes and can very possibly try taking is thick and heady in the room.

It’s the hardest thing Adam has ever done not to lower his gaze in complete submission and get on his knees for the guy right then and there.

He really, _really_ hopes his Other Half—with capital letters that make Adam want to laugh because he never thought it could be real—isn’t a knothead that will shoo everyone from their general vicinity and have Adam on the table before they even say hello to each other.

He’s heard it tends to go that way for ‘True Mates’—yes, with air quotes and capital letters—and fails to see how that’s romantic instead of fucking disrespectful and demeaning. He doesn’t want that happening to him, to _them_.

He knows they can be great, feels it with such a strong certainty it shakes his bones.

He blushes and keeps his legs firmly clenched, trying not to inhale too deep. He’ll be damned if the smell of his slick reaches Shelton’s nose before Adam decides whether he truly likes him or if it’s just his body getting way ahead of itself.

“Howdy, everyone,” Shelton greets a little tightly, seemingly frozen by the door, “Pleasure to meet y’all,” his Adam’s apple bobbles and the spell between them eases enough for the lead man to stir his eyes away from him as Blake shakes hands with everyone and pats Carson’s back.

When it’s Adam’s turn his proverbial mate only offers a hand to him as well and the room spins again but for a whole different reason.

If this isn’t a rejection, Adam doesn’t know what it is. He’s had Alphas that smelled one hundred times less interested than Shelton propositioning him less than ten seconds after meeting him.

It’s like the weight of the world has fallen on him.

He can’t breathe.

He makes himself shake Shelton’s hand by sheer force of will.

Touching him, learning he’s warm and solid and has the calloused fingers of a guitarist, that—that doesn’t sit very well with Adam either.

He doesn’t understand why the Alpha has casted him out so quickly when he smelled so unbelievably perfect, like all the things Adam loves all wrapped in one huge, handsome package.

Shelton isn’t mated! Is Adam’s scent really that abhorrent? What is so wrong with him he can’t even make his _meant to be_ _mate_ consider him?

Then again—didn’t Carson mention his friend is a Country artist? It hits Adam suddenly, how much he screwed this up for himself by refusing to act like a well-mannered Omega, keeping his chin and gaze up when he was supposed to show some respect to his—no, not his—Alpha.

But fuck it, did he really need to act like something he’s not to get what he wants? He can’t regret not doing it, can’t regret being true to who he is no matter how much this breaks his heart.

He knows that once he stands up everyone is going to know for sure just how much this got to him—because they know already, except for Carson—they’re going to know every little thing Adam’s felt since Shelton arrived; the initial sweet-smelling excitement of meeting an Alpha that would want him and then the pungent tang of rejected Omega that’s said to be one of the worst things you can ever scent.

Adam knows that and he does it anyway, pushing past Shelton to lock himself in the bathroom. He almost gags after taking a gulp of air and getting that disgusting oh-poor-unwanted-Omega smell first-hand.

He flushes in humiliation, feeling betrayed by his biology in a way he’s never experienced before.

He stares at his reflection in the mirror. He looks every bit as upset as he feels.

“It’s okay,” he says out loud, leaning on the sink in a lame attempt to remain upright, “You’ll be fine, you always are.”

_You didn’t want a mate anyway so suck it up, asshole._

But he did. He really did. The lie doesn’t help him get it together any quicker.

He huddles on the bathroom floor, his back against the closed door, and tells himself he can weep for five minutes.

Five minutes and then he’ll be out to roll with the punches.

***

The overly sweet smell of contrition waits for him outside.

He knows at once it belongs to Shelton, has already learned how to tell apart the scent of his Alpha—no! Not his, god fucking damn it—from any other.

The Alpha in question is waiting for the front man as well, fiddling with two silver rings that he wears in the same finger mated people wear their bands.

He wants to lie, to brush him off, to say he gets it—gets why such a gorgeous Alpha like him wouldn’t want a mate like Adam but can’t do it. He has to settle for looking at him pitifully and hoping the guy will let him down easy.

Adam wrinkles his nose and detects a tad of citric, potent hope in his Alpha musk as well and that confuses him.

“Shelton.”

“It’s Blake,” the Country singer amends softly, “You’re a legend, Adam,” he breathes out, his voice the same gentle if raspier drawl Adam first heard from him, “Damn it, you’re a superstar—your beliefs, they are well-known and I respect you a whole lot for them. I couldn’t—I didn’t want to ruin my chances with you, didn’t want to insult you by taking for granted that you would—I still don’t, y’know, that’s just wrong, but I’ve been looking my whole life for you and I’ll happily be yours, if you be mine.”

Adam exhales, the relief practically turning his legs to jelly. He feigns a pose on the doorframe and smiles as he leans against it, enjoying how Blake’s eyes check him out greedily and blatantly as he regains his balance.

“You’re asking for my permission,” he states, beaming, “You could do whatever you want to me and no one would tell you anything but you’re still asking.”

“’Course I am,” Blake remarks, frowning in obvious distaste at the idea of forcing himself on him, “You’re important, I’ll always listen to you.”

Adam closes his eyes, his scent already reverting to sweet and inviting. He’s getting wet again and a lot more than the first time.

Fuck, Blake didn’t even use the very old, very trite _I’m not that kind of Alpha_.

Adam can’t believe this Sasquatch of an Alpha is so courteous and downright _perfect_ for him and—most importantly—that he wants _him_.

“Yeah, I think you’ll do,” he concedes cheekily, watching through half-lidded eyes as Blake’s nostrils flare and the tension leaves his impressive frame in a rush.

He has an armful of scent-drunk Alpha the following second, can’t help the needy little whine that comes out of his throat when Blake starts to nuzzle his neck, inhaling deeply as if he couldn’t get his fill of Adam’s scent.

He holds on to Blake’s shoulders, grateful for the extra support his Alpha’s hand around his waist gives him. Being scented so lovingly is incredibly arousing for an Omega and Adam feels so much blood flooding his skin it reminds him of the prickle of his heats.

People can probably smell giddy, blissful Omega from all the way down the hallway now.

He’s not even sorry about that.

“Just— _ah_ ,” he asks, mid-moan as Blake brushes his lips up his neck until he buries his nose under Adam’s ear to keep nuzzling his face, “Not here, please.”

He feels more than sees the smile Blake gives him. “Of course.”

His Alpha breaks apart and slips one of the rings he’s been twiddling with around Adam’s ring finger, raising his hand to his lips to press a kiss on it when he’s done.

The ring is too big for Adam’s bony finger but Blake promises to find a better fit later, setting it on Adam’s thumb so it doesn’t fall off.

Adam is very glad Blake kisses him full on the lips next but whimpers in protest when his Alpha parts from him after barely a brush of his hot mouth against his. He stands on his tip toes to meet him again but Blake is so freaking tall without some cooperation from his part it accomplishes nothing.

“Testing my self-control, ain’t you? Cheeky little shit,” Blake berates him teasingly, “Tell me where to, darling, and I’ll make you see stars.”

Adam giggles and tugs at Blake’s hand to lead him back into the room they were having the meeting for The Voice.

“You’re so fucking cheesy, I can’t believe you. Tell Carson we’re staying or leaving, I don’t know. Up to you. Then we’re going to my place.”

Blake inspects him closely, going as far as to flush him back against his body with a hand firmly gripping Adam’s hip. He sniffs against his collarbone right where Adam’s white tee has a convenient gash and growls low in his throat.

Adam surprises himself not stiffening at the show of dominance and instead leaning into Blake’s hold. He wants to worry about Blake changing his mind and claiming him rather publicly and rudely but his brain seems to be out of service.

He just wants to be with his Alpha; he doesn’t care what they do or where they do it as long as Blake keeps touching him.

“My Gosh, Adam,” Blake exclaims in awe, “You’re going into heat for me.”

Adam blinks and looks up at him, puzzled. That’s not—he isn’t—he just had his heat a week ago! Plus, a triggered heat is stuff of fairy tales and ridiculous love songs, it isn’t—it isn’t possible, is it?

The slick pooling between his legs and soaking his skinny jeans down to his thighs tells him otherwise, as does the flush that keeps spreading through his body.

Blake’s right. Adam guesses he has an hour tops before his heat is at its peak and as vast as his experience refusing knots is and being surrounded by Alphas while half out of his mind, he knows this time it’ll be different. This time, he will lose control—he’s _already_ losing it.

It’s the first time he’s ever been seriously interested in an Alpha and his body—oh, his body _knows_ it, knew it before Adam did and wants Blake’s knot like it’s never wanted anything in his life.

Adam wants it too—wants the Alpha attached to it, wants the whole package and is bewildered to find no fear in his heart, no concern about the possibility of losing everything he is over a stranger that could be either the best thing that’s ever happened to him or the worst.

In his heart, there’s nothing but trust.

“Take me home,” he breathes over his Alpha’s lips, a teasing but promising caress, his eyes gazing up at his newfound mate as if there’s no one else in the world but them.

Blake growls deep from within his chest and kisses him until Adam can barely stand on his own feet.

Between hurried congratulations and a promise to call soon, Blake takes him out of the building and into a company car where he barks Adam’s address to the driver—how did he even get it? Adam has maybe been too preoccupied rubbing himself all over Blake’s side to notice—and orders him to close the partition between them.

Adam climbs to his lap and snags a fiery kiss from his increasingly worked up Alpha when it’s not even done closing.

Their lips slot seamlessly and Adam shivers with just the hot press of them together all the way down to his toes. They part in sync to let the other in, to allow their tongues to flick and lick each other as their mouths keep gliding and learning every little spot that makes the other gasp and push closer.

His hands slide down Blake’s back and arms, the hot and unyielding muscles rippling beneath his fingers. Blake’s hands slip right underneath his t-shirt and he whimpers and arches for him, encouraging his fingers to go lower and lower, the direct touch from his Alpha driving him deeper and faster into the incoherent muddle of thoughts and sensations that he thought he was familiar with but is quickly realizing he knows nothing about.

This heat doesn’t feel like any other Adam has gone through; sure, control is difficult to grasp being horny and boiling hot to the point it _hurts_ but he’s always managed. This time, he can’t even think of stopping what he’s doing.

All he can think of is that he has his Alpha with him and there’s no reason to hold back because Blake is meant to be _his_ and this—this itch Adam can’t scratch without his help, this longing that threatens to drive him insane and burn him from the inside out—is all his too, just like Adam is.

Blake groans like a dying animal and seizes Adam’s hips with both hands with bruising strength to grind against his wet, clothed perineum. He’s so big Adam doubts that’s all him at first, the hardness he feels against him quite intimidating but as it twitches and throbs with their movements he’s convinced it’s really Blake and that Alphas definitely have a well-deserved reputation in that department.

Adam has always topped when he’s shared a bed with a Beta or Omega male. It’s hard to believe he’s going to have his Alpha’s impressive length inside of him soon but he wants it so much the mere idea has more slick leaking out of him in long, thick spurts that smell sweeter by the second.

He’s never been this wet in his whole fucking life.

Blake ruts against him with such skill Adam feels the prods all the way inside, right over that buddle of nerves that he only allows himself to reach with his fingers when he’s at his most desperate and that no one has ever touched.

He moans, loud and piercing, and climaxes just like that, vision going white and unfocused.

Blake kisses him, slow but sensual, and murmurs praise that has Adam clinging to him, already aching to feel him again in any and every way he can. “So responsive, my beautiful Omega. Don’t worry, I know what you need. I’ll give it to you soon, sweetheart, hang in there for me.”

In the throes of his feverish need, Adam hears concern that he doesn’t understand.

Blake has been with Omegas in heat before, right? Of course he has. He knows there isn’t anything lethal in going through one and yet he shouts at the poor driver to hurry the hell up and cups Adam’s face to keep him entertained with another throughout kiss while Adam rubs weakly against his crotch and _wants_.

He wants so much, _needs_ so much he stops thinking—he’s aware, oh, he _is,_ that his Alpha is holding him and whispering things to his ear but even if they’re commands he’s supposed to follow like a meek perfect Omega—and he _would_ be like that right now, he so would—he doesn’t catch them.

He’s burning. The one thing he can register is this horrible, gaping emptiness inside of him.

He has the ridiculous thought that he’s going to die if he doesn’t get something— _anything_ —to fill him up soon.

Suddenly there are fingers inside him—big and blunt and persistent, stretching him wide as Adam clenches around them and dreams it’s Blake’s knot instead.

He still feels empty and pained even after coming for a second time, his body refusing to let go of Blake’s fingers because they’re hot and long and might not be what he needs but they belong to his Alpha and that makes it better than anything he could do on his own to help with the agonizing hollowness inside of him.

It’s so—so odd. Heats don’t go this way; having an orgasm would give him at least twenty minutes of sleepy relief, not leave him panting and trembling violently for more.

He breathes in Blake’s scent filled with worry and distress alongside sizzling lust and gets scared.

What the fuck is going on?

“Alpha,” he whimpers, eyes wide open but unseeing.

His vision is darkening quickly. He has to fight to stay awake.

Blake keeps murmuring endearments and vows to take care of him in that sweet twang of his that Adam is already associating with love.

He goes limp in Blake’s arms and teeters in and out of conscience; the only thing he knows for sure is the feeling of his limbs around his Alpha’s body and the frantic beating of his heart beneath Adam’s ear.

He barely recognizes the smell of home as he’s tossed on something soft—his couch, maybe, and stripped between harsh tugs and curses.

He only feels alert again once he’s impaled half-way down on Blake’s dick.

He moans like the cheapest whore and doesn’t care. His relief is so patent Blake groans with it and fucks into him as much as he can.

“Big,” he babbles, eyelids fluttering as half his body screams this is too painful and the other shouts it’s the best fucking thing he’s ever felt, “You’re so big, Alpha.”

“Adam,” Blake’s large hands hold him in place, prevent him from taking more of his girth in him. He sounds so debauched and wrecked already; Adam feels incredibly proud, “Adam, have you done this before?”

Adam blinks, little drops falling from his lashes to land on his cheeks.

He’s leaking slick and open enough for Blake to push up in tiny thrusts at a time but the only thing that stops the situation from becoming too overwhelming is probably Adam’s heat loosening his muscles to make an intrusion that’s totally unfamiliar to him possible in the span of a few minutes.

He shakes his head and leans his forehead against Blake’s, angry at himself for making this less pleasurable for them.

His heat turns his pheromones stronger and his embarrassment and insecurity are telegraphed to Blake without words before he can blink.

“Sorry,” he mumbles, chagrined for already disappointing his Alpha during their first mating, “I’ll be better next time.”

Blake hushes him with a lingering kiss on the brow. He gains another inch inside Adam and that seems to appease them both enough for one of his hands to leave Adam’s hip and caress his cheek, wiping away his tears with such kindness Adam wonders if he’s dreaming all of this and there really isn’t an Alpha like Blake inching his way into the insolent Omega that Adam prides himself to be.

“You’re perfect,” Blake praises hoarsely, taking him out of his reverie, “You saved your first time for me, Adam. You have any idea what that means to an Alpha?”

Adam attempts a snort. It comes out as a breathy chuckle. He can imagine it’s not such a bad thing as he thought judging by Blake’s musk that goes intoxicating instantly. Adam’s body responds to it; opening up to let him in another inch and producing enough slick to drip down around him and onto Blake’s groin.

His Alpha lets out the sexiest growl at that and Adam’s toes _curl_ with Blake’s obvious satisfaction.

He’s fucking _choking_ on an Alpha’s cock and he wants more, can’t wait until he can feel the knot already swelling against his rim. He whines, scratches at Blake’s shoulders and digs his heels deeper into his back.

There’s a plea in the tip of his tongue—he’s this close to saying it when Blake surges and kisses him, deep and hungry, tongue brushing all the right places in Adam’s mouth.

“Your neck,” Blake rumbles hotly against his lips, “ _Now_.”

Adam tilts his head back immediately, exposing the entire extent of his neck in response to both the Alpha command in Blake’s voice and his body’s own need to submit.

Blake bottoms out at the precise moment his teeth sink into Adam’s flesh just above his pulse point. It’s a claiming bite; it will never go away completely, will mark him as Blake’s mate until he dies and his body rots. From now on, he will never get aroused with another; he will only desire his Alpha and will only find release with him.

He feels the chemicals changing from the mark traveling like a lightning bolt through his spine, thousands and thousands of nerve-endings recalibrating to one touch and scent because Adam chose a mate—he chose Blake and Blake chose him too. It’s the strongest of bonds, the only one unbreakable, the one in which the Omega consents and the Alpha cherishes the Omega enough to be devoted to him and him alone.

Later, when he’s more coherent, he’ll kiss his mate in thanks for marking him on the front of his neck instead of the back, for not taking Adam and knotting him their first time in the classic position of submission, for not making him present; on his knees with his shoulders flat against the floor and his ass up in the air.

Bouncing on Blake’s lap as his mate pounds into him slow and steady to let him get used to it doesn’t give him the illusion of controlling the situation but that’s alright; it’s never been what he wanted.

What Adam wanted was to have a mate that treated him like an equal and being like this gives him just about enough leverage to feel—to _know_ —that they are, that wanting is a thing from the past now.

He has everything he could ever possible want and need right here against him and _in_ him and he’s shuddering with it all, feeling like he could burst out of his skin any second with how _full_ he is.

“Blake—“ it’s only when Blake shushes him with kisses across his face he realizes that he’s crying harder now, clinging to his back, “Alpha, _please_.”

“I got you, Adam,” Blake soothes him, going so hard and deep inside of him at once that Adam arches and opens his eyes wide, mouth slack as he screams his approval, “I know what you need, my Omega. Hush now, let me take care of you.”

There’s so much pleasure for Adam to voice that he feels it’s impossible; he gasps and moans for Blake, murmurs his name and ‘Alpha’ as if they’re the only two words that he knows, but can’t do much that hold onto to him and welcome him to his body as his mate slams into him with abandon and presses and brushes Adam’s prostate with almost every single thrust.

His cock feels amazing inside him, thick and hot and absolutely stiff. Adam’s been missing out for sure but he’s stupidly glad he saved this only for his Alpha to have. It’s too intimate and uncontrollable to share with a hook up or a fuckbuddy, like pieces of a long forgotten puzzle finally sliding into place and making him feel complete.

 _This_ , he thinks, taking all Blake’s giving him, this is what he’s been missing; Blake’s glans breaching him unrepentantly over and over, balls slapping Adam’s ass with the speed of his thrusts, big hands pushing Adam up and down to go with the rocking of his hips.

Adam is so wet everything is smooth and sticky and noisy, the overly-sweet and all-pervading scent of Omega in heat encompassing them in a bubble of yearning, of hunger for each other. His thighs burn and quiver with abuse from the position but he hardly feels it, every sensation just adding to the incredible friction of his Alpha’s length spearing him. His own member is not quite forgotten but squeezed between them in a mess of pre-come and hard muscles.

With every thrust of Blake’s hips, things get fuzzier and fuzzier—a bright and hot, slippery scene that Adam can’t quite see through the thin line of his damp lashes.

When Blake’s knot starts catching in his entrance that seems to get greedier by the minute and doesn’t want to let him back out, all Adam knows is pleasure and his mate giving it to him. The stretch, the thickness—it’s wonderful. He’d do anything to feel it again—repeatedly.

His orgasm washes through him the instant Blake’s knot catches inside him and stays put, his cock pulsing as it releases the first load of semen into Adam and Blake growls loudly and relentlessly, his voice going hoarse with the strain.

Adam clenches around him and relishes the feeling of his mate groaning his way through another climax and filling him up even more, his eyes closed as he mouths Blake’s collarbone lazily and focuses on keeping him in even though it’s unnecessary; they will be tied together for who knows how long, until Blake’s knot goes down.

“I’d love it, y’know,” Blake murmurs into his hair huskily, “If you marked me too.”

Adam looks up in wonder from his place on his shoulder. Not many Alphas allow their mates to have a claiming mark on them too and he wasn’t expecting it—wasn’t going to just do it without Blake’s consent either, being an Omega kind of renders that action an anathema to him after a lifetime of witnessing how the world takes whatever it wants from the ‘weaker’ sex.

“Really?” he asks, croaky.

Blake has to know he’s content with things as they are; his sated Omega pheromones are the one thing that is reminding them they do actually know how to speak after the frenzy of their mating.

His mate smiles at him, grinds against him just so to make Adam cry out as he comes dry and more fluid fills him, “Wherever you want, I’ll wear it proudly,” he assures him and Adam has to kiss him for that, vows to give him _millions_ of mind-blowing orgasms for the rest of his life.

Adam bites down just in the perfect spot for Blake to hide with a shirt if he buttons it all the way up or to show it off if he leaves the collar open. Blake hisses and with the hearty twitch his mate’s dick does inside him at the act, Adam knows for sure it’ll be the second and laps at it, giddy with joy, because Blake wasn’t just indulging his liberal Omega ways but he actually wanted it too.

Blake helps him uncurl his legs off his hips before they cramp and rubs his thighs soothingly, rearranging them at his sides. Adam lowers his arms from his shoulders, beat but reluctant to let go, and snuggles into his broad chest as he moans, his body clamping instinctively on Blake again to milk him further.

“Sorry I couldn’t wait to your bed, Adam,” Blake mumbles. By the sound of him, he’s as drowsy as the Omega is, “You scared me in the cab and I—I remembered a tale my nana used to tell me, about Omega princesses dying when they developed a heat specifically for an Alpha and weren’t claimed. So I—uh—I claimed you right here, was as long as I bore to risk you.”

Adam would _hit_ him if he weren’t so fucking comfortable.

As it is, he just grunts in annoyance.

“Not a princess, dickhead.”

“But you were dying,” Blake drawls, “I smelled it on you, freaked me out half to my grave, I swear.”

He remembers the darkness closing in on him and has to accept it’s true, hiding in the crook of his mate’s neck in embarrassment.

Shit, how fucking needy was that exactly? He’s glad Blake wanted him already or he’d be feeling awful about coercing into mating with him to save his life.

“Oh, honey,” Blake breathes out, his tone a low rumble that has Adam shivering and clenching on his cock again. His Alpha caresses his back tenderly with a hand, carding the other through Adam’s short hair, “You have no idea. You gave me the greatest gift an Omega can give an Alpha. You have nothing to feel ashamed of; you’ve made me the happiest man in the freaking universe.”

Soothed and warmed with the praise in ways he can’t describe, Adam takes a deep, shuddering breath and kisses Blake’s jaw, nuzzling his nose after his arms weave around his mate’s neck again.

He takes a good, long look at him; the handsome, Alpha features of his face, his blue-blue eyes, his curly hair beginning to rebel against the product he smoothed it with.

He wants a child with all of that, he thinks with a sudden pang of longing, and figures it won’t be hard to get it. He’s in heat, they used no protection and Adam isn’t on any birth control.

If they keep fucking at this rate, he’ll be pregnant for sure.

Blake smooches every corner of his face and convinces him to take a quick nap before their next mating.

Falling asleep in his Alpha’s arms is easy. Adam has never felt safer.

He’s right where he belongs.

***

When he wakes up, Blake’s knot has gone down and he slips free with a squishy sound.

Adam begins leaking instantly and feels so horribly empty he can’t suppress a loud sob.

He sprawls on the couch and presents for Blake without a second thought, the position coming natural to him with the acute need coursing through his veins and the trust Blake gained during their first time.

“Shhhh,” Blake shushes him gently but his hands are firm and demanding in holding his hips in place as he starts driving into him again with no foreplay and no prep because Adam doesn’t need any of that, he just needs his knot so much he can’t stop crying while he waits for it to swell no matter how many times his mate brushes against his prostate or aims right at it, “I’m right here, baby, gonna give you what you need.”

“Alpha,” Adam moans, high-pitched and wanton, shoving his ass even higher and back onto Blake’s cock, “Breed me, please, fucking knot me so good you’ll knock me up.”

His Alpha snarls in reply, his pace escalating to the point he barely draws out and sticks to pumping into Adam hard and fast with sharp and relentless thrusts.

“You want my children, Adam?” Blake grumbles, “Want me to fill you up real good and swell with my seed so you can have beautiful babies for me like a nice dutiful Omega?”

“Yes!” he screams, his cheek chafing against the fabric of the couch as Blake pounds him into the cushions, “Yes, Alpha! Wanna be good for you, please, _please_ , breed me.”

They come together this time, Adam all over his couch and Blake in large pulses as he keeps grinding his hips against Adam’s ass in growling little moves, his knot caught inside of him keeping every drop of his seed inside.

Adam spreads his legs wider, one calf falling off to the floor, and clenches down to milk his mate for all he’s worth.

Blake presses even closer to him and lets go of his left hip to lay a hand on his lower belly, stroking the place that will grow with their offspring as if Adam were already expecting.

He practically _purrs_ , eyelids fluttering with the intense pleasure it brings him to give his mate everything he has to offer.

“Mine,” Blake roars, possessive, and bites down all over Adam’s upper back and shoulders as he keeps humping him and filling him up, not even pausing when he climaxes several times more, “My Omega, my mate.”

Adam mumbles his agreement in a daze, coming three more times without even being hard at all.

By the time Blake pulls out again, Adam is so full he doesn’t even complain.

His abdomen is already slightly inflated and Blake instructs him to clench and not let anything escape.

Adam obeys, far beyond himself by now, and listens absently as his mate rummages through his house for a plug.

He only has the one and it’s in his bedside table. Blake brings it downstairs and pushes it gently into him, making him mewl, and carries him upstairs as if it were their wedding night—which it is, in all the ways that matter.

He leaves Adam in the bed and promises to come back with drinks and food.

He kisses Adam’s clammy, overheated forehead and that’s it. Adam is out like a light.

***

He comes to fingertips kneading his scalp, a cool wet cloth covering his forehead and eyes.

He doesn’t panic; he can smell his mate all over the room, all over _himself_ , can feel his bigger body comfily tucked beside him.

He hums, taking a deeper breath and enjoying their mingled scents in the air. He stretches like a cat after a mid-day nap and removes the cloth, squinting at his Alpha with a sleepy smile.

“How long was I out?” he asks, throat dry. He licks his lips and it doesn’t do shit but Blake is quick to press a glass of apple juice against them after straightening him up just enough to drink.

“Four hours,” Blake replies. Adam curses but he doesn’t seem mad and leans down to kiss the smaller man on the nose, placating, “You needed it, Adam. It’s okay.”

But it’s not, not really. His mate is just too sweet with him to be mad.

His scent has changed and Adam may have never shared a rut with an Alpha but his body recognizes the rich aroma oozing off of Blake’s skin and the strong need to mate until they can’t move mixes with his own compulsion to be fucked and split open on a knot.

It seems his mate’s body decided to go into a rut to help Adam get through this overpowering heat—it’s a good call, all things considered, he’s still amazed Blake was able to get it up so fast during their first time together. It’s exactly the rhythm Adam’s biology requires but it’d be impossible to maintain outside a rut at their age.

He nibbles a couple of crackers because his Alpha is hell-bent on it and then straddles his hips.

Blake takes out the plug with trembling fingers and groans, palms and fingers spread on Adam’s lower back, as Adam sits on his neglected cock to bring them both some relief.

The Country singer falls on his back and digs his heels in the mattress, hips snapping up towards Adam’s inviting heat, Adam’s calves trapped beneath his strong thighs.

Adam’s slick coats his groin all the way down to his sack and Blake’s eyes roll back in his head, fingers migrating to Adam’s thighs to keep him in place for his swift thrusts to go in just so to make Adam cry out and push down to meet him.

He scratches Blake’s chest with blunt nails, his chin pressed on his chest as he stares down at his mate and pants, lewd and frantic.

“Should’ve woken me up,” he mumbles, the tip of Blake’s dick lighting him up from the inside out and the friction in his inner walls exactly what he needs to subdue the maddening burning in him, “Oh, fuck, _fuck_ , like that—ah, Blake, _Alpha—_ “

“Next time I’ll fuck you in your sleep, sweetheart, while you dream I’m taking you again,” Blake promises in a rumble and is—is that his dick _growing_? It doesn’t feel like his knot, which is already catching on Adam’s rim in a clear sign of his mate’s impending release, “Shit, _shit_ —Adam, that’s—“

Adam screams through yet another bone-deep orgasm when Blake’s knot pops completely and loads of hot come join the mess inside him.

Blake rushes up to kiss him until he tastes iron on his tongue; sucking Adam’s bottom lip into his mouth like it’s a treat, a growl vibrating from his chest to Adam’s as they hold one another and forget the notion of limits between their bodies.

Adam laughs as they’re tied together, a breathy sensual sound that has his mate twitching inside of him.

“Not so bad for a _virgin_ , huh?” he teases, suddenly grateful Blake let him do this for him, the position with the Omega on top not every Alpha’s cup of tea as far as he knows.

Blake laughs too—guffaws, really, his amusement loud and contagious. He peppers Adam’s neck with licks and wet kisses and Adam can’t help but loving the sound as well, can’t help loving everything his mate is and shares with him.

“Best I’ve ever had,” Blake confesses, locking eyes with him and making Adam’s breath hitch. He looks so awed it’s hard to believe it’s because of him, “Sweetest, prettiest Omega in the world and you’re all mine. I’m the luckiest man in the world, baby.”

Adam blushes even more at the praise, closing his eyes as a long moan is ripped out of him.

Blake moves them to lie down in the bed, careful not to dislodge his cock from Adam’s greedy hole or tug at it in an uncomfortable way. He keeps humping Adam lazily, emptying himself inside of him, and Adam arches and takes it all clinging to him with sweaty arms and legs around his broad body.

His mate leaves new marks on the exposed column of his neck and Adam clamps on his knot, stuttering through another climax just like that.

While they’re knotted together Blake offers Adam more crackers and watches him chewing groggily, eyelids heavy but stomach grumbling in protest after all the exertion without nourishment.

There are sandwiches on the nightstand as well but Adam wrinkles his nose and feeds Blake one instead of eating it. He’s hungry but he feels too full for that.

“I was worried,” Blake drawls in a whisper, kissing Adam’s fingertips when he’s done munching, “That you wouldn’t like submitting. Not every Omega does, not naturally, some just fake it for their Alphas.”

Adam knows that but he was never worried. He wanted to submit to his Alpha the moment he laid eyes on him, the moment he first smelled him.

“I wanted to suck you right in that office, in front of everyone,” he admits, smirking when Blake’s pretty blues go even darker at the idea, “Wanted to get on my knees for you to mount me. Never wanted to do that for anyone before.”

Blake growls lowly, nipping at Adam’s jawline as his body stirs with barely any pause in their coupling. Adam is aware this is the rut reacting very poorly to even the slightest suggestion of the Omega straying from the Alpha but he doesn’t regret his choice of words, not when his mate flips him over effortlessly to make him present and pounds into him blindly, a palm always cradling his belly and pressing on the swollen organs there to force Adam to feel how fucking full he is down to his core.

“Mine,” Blake snarls, the creaking of the mattress beneath them vulgar and obvious, “You’ll submit to no one but me, my Omega.”

Adam agrees frenziedly, sweaty hair plastered on the sheets, lodging his knees harder on the bed to push himself back onto his mate’s length.

“Yours, Alpha,” he hitches.

He makes sure to press on Blake’s claiming mark with testing fingers when they’re finally too spent to move for a while.

His mate moans in approval and snuggles into him like a contented puppy, their fingers entwined over Adam’s tummy.

 _Mine_ , Adam thinks, and he’s so sure of it he doesn’t need to say it.

***

As magical as things seem to be between them, there’s no magic trick they can pull off to get out of their heat and rut any faster.

When they pause to rest, Blake doesn’t sleep; his Alpha instinct to protect his Omega mate is too strong to let him. He watches over Adam instead, always loving and gentle if a tad too possessive, and the younger man is shocked at the lack of resentment the defiance he can’t swallow down sometimes gets.

Blake says he loves Adam’s spark, his feisty attitude, that his submission is so beautiful he doesn’t feel threatened in his position. He laughs and spurs Adam on and he loves him even more for that.

It’s three long, exhausting days of mating over and over before they can get their heads back on their shoulders.

They sleep for over a day after that, snuggled together beneath Adam’s sheets.

The following day Blake is out running some errands and making the arrangements to move to Adam’s place—and how great is that, that his Alpha is confident enough to do that without feeling insulted?—when his phone rings and Adam reaches for it muzzily.

He thinks it’s probably his brother and doesn’t even check the caller ID.

He regrets it later.

“Not so much of an Omega revolution activist anymore, are you now, Adam?” Christina’s voice mocks, “Blake just left. You were such a good bitch for him he reeks of sated Alpha from a block away. Not really the smell an Omega with delusions of grandeur can get of his mate, you know?”

Adam stares at the ceiling. He’s too tired to have a smartass remark but he’s pissed off all the same.

Christina obviously has never understood what Adam advocates for and he’s so fucking fed-up of Omegas competing against each other to see who’s the most desirable.

All this jealousy is just so sick and pointless and draining. They should be an united front. There’s no one else who can understand an Omega better than another Omega who’s been through the same judgment and struggles during their life.

“Gee, it’s real nice of you to get so happy for me, Christina, thanks,” he says, sarcasm dripping from his every word, “I’ll let Blake know you’ve fully blessed our mating, he’ll be thrilled.”

Christina scoffs. “Everyone is going to know you’re just like the rest of us and will stop paying attention to you, you’ll see.”

She hangs up just like that.

Adam feels a headache building behind his eyes and rubs his face with a hand. He supposes he should feel honored to make Christina Aguilera feel so threatened but all he feels is anger.

He pads to the bathroom, halfheartedly looking for the one thing that will make him feel better.

He finds the pregnancy tests in the last drawer, a long-forgotten gift from his mom in a desperate attempt to make his Omega son give her grandchildren soon.

He checks the expiration date and nods to himself, picking one from the box before tossing it back where it was.

He inspects his reflection in the mirror. His mark is there, stark and purple against the paleness of his skin littered with smaller, red lovebites and grazes all over his body.

He looks down at the ring on his finger and smiles slightly, having little doubt in his mind that he’s pregnant even though his body feels no different and that should be a sign of alarm.

His scent should’ve changed by now, if he were, but he tells himself he’s too drained to tell because what are the chances a healthy Omega doesn’t quicken after a heat? He has to be—has to—

The blue stripe on the little plastic stick proves him wrong.

***

 _I’m barren_ , he thinks and it’s the most raw, aching panic he’s ever experienced.

Was it that the sour hint in his scent? Why Blake didn’t realize he’s damaged goods if that’s the case?

His mate is going to leave him—he’s going to estrange his Omega and they’ve just met.

It’s going to kill him, Adam knows it, feels it deep in his marrow.

***

Blake finds him still weeping, huddled against the bathtub with both arms around his sterile gut.

“Adam?” he calls, scooping his mate up, his heart thudding like a jackhammer in his chest in response to the acrid Omega distress in the air, “Honey, what is it? Tell me.”

There’s no Alpha command in his voice but Adam can’t even think about hiding this from him, not when they were both looking so forward to having a little family of their own.

He buries his wet face in the crook of his mate’s neck and hands the test to him with trembling fingers, closing Blake’s hand around it as a loud, wretched moan leaves his throat.

He shuts his eyes tight, can’t face his mate’s disappointment on top of his own horror at the face of this discovery.

Blake puts the stick down softly, rocking Adam back and forth as he murmurs sweet nothings to his hair that Adam doesn’t deserve.

He wants to offer his Alpha his mating ring back but can’t move, can’t let go of him, can only curl against his chest and inhale deep.

His mate’s scent is soft and soothing. It dries his tears and turns his sobs into little hiccups once he realizes it won’t spiral to anger and rejection.

Blake still wants him. How’s that even possible?

“Look at me, Adam,” and he does, scared and small in his Alpha’s arms, “This means nothing. It was one heat. We’ll try again next time and the next until you get pregnant.”

“Blake,” Adam whispers, looking up at him and finding nothing but love and patience in his mate’s features, “What if I don’t?”

“We’ll go see a doctor, get a surrogate, adopt,” Blake names the options as if they’re all the same and Adam gapes at him. He can count with one hand the numbers of Alphas he’s heard of that are okay with raising other Alpha’s children and he still has fingers to spare, “There are plenty of kids in need of a loving home we can provide for them. It’ll be alright, Adam. We’ll be okay.”

Adam can’t shake this paralyzing sadness off of him, not so fast. He was already dreaming with holding a baby with blue eyes and brown curls, saw their child running around the house in little wobbly feet clad in tiny cowboy boots.

Blake doesn’t take their band from him. On the contrary, he gives Adam another one for his ring finger that fits perfectly and kisses it like he did the first time. He asks if he should take the big ring and chuckles when Adam closes his fist and refuses to relinquish it.

They stay cuddling on the bathroom floor for way too much time but Blake only stands with Adam in his arms when his scent is back to newly and happily mated Omega with just a hint of anguish in it.

“Thanks, Alpha,” he mumbles into his mate’s neck, “For not freaking out.”

Blake kisses the crown of his head and walks them to the master bedroom. He deposits Adam on the bed so tenderly tears well up in his eyes again for a different reason.

“You’re my mate, Adam,” Blake tells him, thumbs brushing his cheekbones and wiping his eyes before more tears can stain his cheeks, “My love, my number one priority. We’ll figure this out together. I want you to forget about what the other Alphas you’ve met have said to you. You’re strong and beautiful and there’s _nothing_ broken in you, alright?”

Adam gulps, blushing. “How did you—“

Blake gives him a small smile, just a tiny bit smug on the edges. “Should I worry you were too out of it during your heat? Maybe I was fucking you too hard?”

Adam chuckles and smacks him on the chest, playful. “You’re so full of yourself.”

Blake wriggles his eyebrows and Adam groans. He knows exactly what joke his Alpha is going to make.

***

Adam sneaks out to a fertility clinic. He doesn’t even need to lie about where he’s going; Blake is so open-minded he doesn’t demand to know where Adam is at all times, just asks him to be safe and call him if he needs anything.

He wants to be good for Blake and he knows most Alphas have their egos bruised when they need to ask for help to impregnate their Omegas, whether it’s their fault or not.

The doctor listens to his situation attentively and cocks her head to one side once he’s done.

“I could run blood tests on you to corroborate my diagnosis, Mister Levine, but I think that what happened here is quite simple, if extremely rare,” she says, “You ran out of eggs during your regular heat. When you met your true mate shortly a week after, your body went into overdrive to entice him to claim you but couldn’t produce more mature egg cells so fast. Your triggered heat was created to be alluring, not efficient. Do you understand?”

“Really?” Adam gawks, “I’m not barren?”

“I wouldn’t think so, no,” she smiles at him, reassuring, “But please, hop onto the stretcher and allow me to examine you if you want to make sure.”

Adam cringes a little at the idea of someone that isn’t his mate touching him and even _seeing_ him down there but he controls that stupid impulse and squares his shoulders, doing as he’s told.

He ends up playing one of Blake’s songs in his iPhone to relax enough for the doctor to conduct a pelvic exam without hurting him. He still winces and flinches through it but the Beta is clinical and quick and soon enough Adam is redressing and sighing in relief, knowing there’s really nothing wrong with him.

“You might want to put this on,” she says, handing him a sanitary pad, “The dye I applied to look at your cervix is going to leak in the next couple of hours.”

Adam makes a face but sets the pad carefully in his boxers. He’s no stranger to using them, has even tried out tampons to be less uncomfortable while working in his heats. “Awesome, thanks.”

She warns him his heat might take an extra month to come and gives him a bottle of vitamins to start preparing his body for pregnancy.

Adam accepts them and thanks her, smiling like a loon.

***

When he explains what happened to his mate, Blake lifts him and spins him around with such joy that Adam laughs and lets him.

They kiss, happy and playful, and a gush of slick wetting Adam’s underwear is everything Blake needs to take him right on the bureau beside the front door, spreading his legs and nestling close between his thighs as he pushes into him.

It’s been ten days since his heat and Adam can’t wait for the next.

***

Christina is a lot less smug and obnoxious once they start tapping the show and Blake is nothing but a diligent, loving mate to him in between takes, giving Adam massages and bringing him snacks every chance he gets.

They bicker a lot on camera and spend the rest of the time exchanging looks and sniggering about jokes they tell that make the other laugh the loudest.

Adam gets to shut Blake up more than a couple of times—both the audience and the coaches get a little tense at that, it’s hilarious—and yeah, maybe Adam is testing his Alpha, but Blake laughs his ass off and there’s a twinkle in his eyes that lets Adam know he can do literally anything he wants and his mate will, at the end of the day, stand by him all the same.

Cee Lo teases them about the long hours of foreplay but it’s more than that; sure, they’ve just mated and can’t keep their hands off each other, but they really get along and Adam is even in love with how much of a dork his mate is sometimes.

If Adam spends too much time sitting in Blake’s lap during breaks—well, no one has to know is Adam’s way of reminding everyone Blake is his. No one has to know it’s the way Adam reminds himself he’s loved and welcomed in the Country singer’s arms too.

Blake never tries imposing his Alpha status on him to take a contestant from Adam or to do anything else. The only times his musk gets slightly thick with possession is whenever Adam tells him that he loves him after mocking him for his poor knowledge of rock and pop music.

Carson and the other producers are ecstatic with them.

Apparently, their love story works wonders for publicity. And yeah, the media mocks Adam for picking a redneck—known to be the most conservatives of Alphas—as a mate but they don’t know Blake like Adam knows him. He takes it all in stride and doesn’t care about what anyone says.

When an Omega oriented magazine asks him for an interview, he tries—yet again—to explain he believes everyone should do what makes them happy but doesn’t try very hard to defend his reputation as rogue Omega.

The press seems to understand eventually, probably because Blake scowls and growls at anyone who badmouths Adam and is loud and unabashed in clarifying he’s not Adam’s owner; he’s his mate and they’re partners, equals.

The Voice becomes the number one show on TV in no time and their romance is legendary.

***

He’s used to using scent maskers and sanitary pads on his first day of heat. Other than feeling uncomfortably horny and knowing he’ll get cramps on his fingers from how hard he’ll stick them inside him when he’s back home to ease his need a little, he feels fine. He carries on with his life as if nothing was wrong.

This time is different. He gets up and takes a shower and collides against his mate’s chest as soon as he’s out, skin dripping wet and a tiny towel draped low around his hips.

Blake takes one sniff at him and his pupils get blown to Hell, his scent spiking so much Adam sways with the strength of Alpha arousal in the room.

Adam _thinks_ about reminding him they have work but they’ve been waiting for this for almost two months and he’s already leaking slick down to his thighs just in response to his Alpha’s presence and some manhandling to the bed.

They kiss urgently as Blake strips, socks still on and jeans hanging from his ankles when his stubble scratches Adam’s ass cheeks as he laps at his entrance with eager lips and tongue, outlining his rim firmly before diving in and sucking the fresh slick into his mouth like it’s ambrosia.

Adam gets kicked right to his heat’s peak just like that, feels flushed and unbearably hot all over, his control slipping until it seems like a far memory.

He spreads his legs wider and whines, begging his mate for his knot and slurping around it gratefully when his Alpha shoves him down towards his cock.

Blake fingers him to keep him pacified, his other hand stroking Adam’s jaw to coax him to open it further. He fucks into his mouth shamelessly, all Alpha dominance, the only tenderness of the moment the litany of praises he gives Adam in a low rumble.

Adam has never taken an Alpha’s imposing girth in his mouth. He’s received more blowjobs than given them but his body knows what to do and opens up for his mate to deep throat him sloppily, shivering and flushing down to his thighs in delight at the compliments he’s hearing.

“Gonna mark you up first, baby,” Blake announces. Adam keens in approval and his Alpha pulls out of his mouth with a pop, “Close your eyes.”

Adam obeys and feels the hot spurts of his mate’s seed coating his face and chest as Blake holds him by the short hairs of his nape. He turns Adam over with just a flick of his wrist and the smaller man stumbles down in the mattress, moaning when more come lands on his back.

He can hear Blake frantically jerking himself off behind him and presents for him, silently begging him again.

His Alpha complies this time, sliding into his tight heat in one fluid roll of his hips. He keeps Adam’s head down with a hand firm around his nape and Adam discovers with a shout that the gesture makes him even more pliant and wet, easing the burn faster.

His mate is in complete control this time that he’s not focused on claiming him, doesn’t breed Adam until the second day of his heat when he’s at his most fertile and stays tied to him, pumping seed into him until he has nothing else to give.

Adam is so full he’s drooling by the end of it, eyes almost closed and bleary.

Blake spoons behind him, finding a comfortable position to wait for the next wave of his heat and for his knot to go down. He kisses the side of his face and neck, nuzzling him until Adam falls asleep.

***

The third day, they don’t even need a pregnancy test to know Adam’s womb has quickened.

Pregnant Omegas emanate the most pleasant smell and it’s impossible to miss it when they wake up. Adam’s sensed it before in other people but something about it being his own this time makes the rainbows and butterflies he can almost touch in the air all the more special.

“Blake,” he grins, turning to look at Blake who’s beaming so much his dimples are practically tattooed on his face, “We did it!”

Blake kisses him softly, keeping his forehead pressed against his. “Told you we’d be okay.”

***

Adam starts showing faster than anyone expected, including the obstetrician they handpicked for their first child.

The doctor runs another ultrasound and confirms Adam is expecting twins. She tells them both not to worry, explains that Omegas are built for multiple births with little risk for their health, and encourages them to have sex on a regular basis to keep Adam’s body loose and relaxed so the changes in his physiology don’t cause him unnecessary pain.

They really, _really_ don’t need the reinforcement—at all.

Blake can hardly keep his hands to himself while they’re working and he touches Adam everywhere with reverent but insistent lips and fingertips as soon as they’re alone. He adopts the habit of caressing Adam’s inner thighs absently whenever they’re close to each other and sucking Adam’s earlobes to his mouth, whispering in that charming accent of his just how good of a mama Adam is going to be—and so help him, even with his mate calling him a girl when he’s obviously _not_ , Adam loves it.

It drives the Omega crazy. He spreads his legs for Blake at any time of the day and anywhere as long as there’s at least a door between them and the rest of the world and moans shamelessly as his mate takes him frequently and tirelessly.

“You smell so good,” Blake mumbles over and over, palming his calves to get him nice and spread for him, “Even better when you have my scent all over you, honey, I can’t help myself.”

Adam kinda loves being pregnant if it means amazing sex and constant attention from his mate.

He can deal with the morning sickness, the swollen ankles, the backaches, the mood swings, the cravings. He tries hard not to inconvenience his Alpha with the downs of his condition, every Omega instinct that he has forcing him to be thankful he has a mate to lean on that wants the life that’s growing inside of him as much as he wants Adam.

He won’t take advantage of the Alpha’s instinct to give him anything he asks for like most Omegas do when they’re expecting.

He’s lucky, he knows that, and refuses to jeopardize his relationship with Blake for stupid little things like looking in the mirror and having to stop because he’s _round_ and puffy and he wants nothing but to be thin and attractive again.

He’s six months pregnant when he wakes up in the middle of the night and has to swallow down a wail.

His back has been hurting like a bitch these last few days but now the pain has him crying quietly into his pillow and curling on his side.

He really doesn’t want to wake Blake up after the Alpha spent over an hour kneading Adam’s back to ease his discomfort.

His mate opens his eyes all the same, nostrils flaring no doubt picking up Adam’s distress even in his sleep.

He’s up and alert in a second flat.

“Adam, what is it?” Blake asks, hands warm and gentle as he prods Adam’s body for the source of the pain, “Your back again?”

Adam nods, miserable and quivering with pain. His Alpha makes a low sound in the back of his throat and noses his forehead, then his neck and collarbones as he scents Adam’s clammy skin.

“You’re running a fever,” he says, matter-of-fact, but stretches to the nightstand for the thermometer. He puts it in Adam’s ear for a few seconds and starts to push him into a sitting position once he reads it, “C’mon, baby, up. We need to get you to the hospital.”

Adam winces and sobs, pulling at his pajamas that consist only of one of Blake’s old flannels and his most worn-out pair of boxers.

“Don’t make me go, please, Alpha,” he pleads, stopping Blake dead in his tracks in his chase for some clothes for them to wear, “I just want a Tylenol. I’ll be fine.”

“Adam,” Blake says, tensing, “You already took one before bed—for the pain, remember? You can’t take more. We need a doctor.”

Adam lets Blake help him into some pants, feeling like an asshole for trying to manipulate his mate by begging.

He hides in the crook of his Alpha’s neck the whole trip there, clinging to his body like a leech and forcing Blake to carry him into the E.R. when they arrive and he still refuses to let go.

They get the on-call obstetrician quickly and she takes one look at Adam’s thrashing on the stretcher, gets close to punch him on the back and makes him jump and scream so hard as a result that Blake ends up snarling at her and pushing the harmless Beta away from Adam.

“Alpha Shelton, your mate has a kidney infection,” she explains, her hands up in surrender, “I’m sorry but that’s the maneuver to diagnose it. I’ll ask a nurse to put an IV with antibiotics and painkillers in his arm for a few hours, then you can take him home to complete the treatment. He’ll be alright. This is quite common at this stage of pregnancy, especially in nulipar Omegas.”

She writes a prescription for him and bids them goodbye, instructing Adam to take plenty of water and visit his regular obstetrician after he’s done with the antibiotics.

Once they’re alone, Adam chuckles and squeezes Blake’s hand tighter. That his mate is so protective of him makes him feel a little less ugly, he has to admit it.

“What’re you laughing at?” Blake frowns but the glint in his eyes speak too loudly of relief to convince Adam to stop, “What’s so funny?”

“Your face is funny,” Adam replies, enjoying how his Alpha snorts out a laugh and kisses the top of his head.

The nurse that comes in is another Beta. Blake still has some trouble letting him do his job, standing aside ready to tackle him at the first sign of distress from Adam.

They stay while the IV drops with their hands joined on top of Adam’s belly, feeling the babies kick every now and then.

They always seem happier and move more when Blake’s hands are on him. It makes Adam think his mate will be an incredible dad and he tells him so, groggy with the pain medication coursing through him.

He wouldn’t be so open about it otherwise.

“Nah,” Blake jokes, “They just think their Alpha dad is annoying.”

Adam slaps him on the side and pulls him down by the lapels of his jacket to kiss him softly on the lips.

“Not annoying,” he whispers, looking up at Blake through his lashes, “Just taking good care of us.”

The words soothe his Alpha enough that he doesn’t growl or stand up to his full height when it’s time to remove Adam’s IV and the doctor decides to check him one last time before they go.

***

Multiple gestation is known to cause more symptoms than just one baby floating in the comfy pool Adam can feel inside him so he’s not surprised when the morning sickness never quite goes away and Blake takes to hovering over him until he can get some food down without rushing to the bathroom.

Both his mate and doctor have him eating like he’s five persons instead of three and he feels heavy and fat but does as he’s told. He doesn’t want to risk their children’s health by throwing a tantrum about how this is his body, thanks a bunch, and he’ll know if he’s hungry, damn it.

Yoga doesn’t really center him as much as it used to but it’s enough to keep Adam from biting his mate’s head off when he’s especially meddling and overprotective.

Turning one of his guest rooms into a nursery and decorating it does wonders for his mood.

They settle for a soothing, earthy green for the walls and hire an artist to paint trees, flowers, bees and butterflies to make it look like outdoors. They pick mahogany furniture for it and blankets and stuffed animals of every color, hanging a little chalkboard on the door with a list of names that keeps growing every day.

They don’t know the sex of the babies because Adam didn’t want to so they need lots of options. Blake has never pushed him to change his mind and Adam doubts he will. He enjoys teasing Adam with horrible names way too much to reduce his list of potential torture by half.

Blake holds Adam in his arms once the nursery is finally ready, kissing his temple and nape, murmuring the colors in it reminds him of Adam’s eyes so he loves it.

“You’re not fucking me in here, cowboy,” Adam taunts him but he’s smiling and his mate takes it like the joke it is.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he replies with a shit-eating grin.

***

Like most things in Adam’s life, his anxiety and annoyance with some of the aspects of his pregnancy come to bite him in the ass when he’s a little over eight months into it.

He hasn’t seen his own fucking feet in so long it’s all he can do to open the faucet to mask the sound of his sobbing after he trips in the bathroom on his way to the shower and stubs his little toe against wall.

He knows he’s bleeding even though he can’t see it; he can smell it, can’t believe he’s such a clumsy shit that he can’t even take a stupid bath without hurting himself.

He puts the oversized flannel he was wearing back on his shoulders and tries to take deep breaths, closing his eyes tight not to see his profile in the mirror.

When Blake comes into the bathroom with a worried expression on his face, a sharp sense of déjà vu hits him. He shivers with it as Blake reaches around him to close the tap, hugging his belly with both arms in an unconscious gesture he hardly notices he’s doing.

Blake shushes him with soothing, wordless noise and raises his chin with his fingers when Adam fails to look up at him.

One brief, chaste kiss is enough to lessen the force with which Adam’s sobs were rattling his chest and he can breathe easier.

“Let me see that little foot,” his mate asks after lowering the toilet seat and gently pushing Adam to sit on it. He never complains it’s just a scrape or that Adam is making a storm in a teacup and simply dabs some hydrogen peroxide on it and put a band-aid, “There, good as new.”

He’s being so caring and perfect. Adam is the worst mate in the world because he’s still crying and can’t seem to stop.

“I’m so tired of this,” he admits, almost in hysterics, “I can’t do anything without fucking up, Blake! And I’m so fucking ugly, have you looked at me lately? I’m huge!”

 Blake blinks at him, eyes wide and arms firm as he pulls Adam into an embrace, dropping to his knees in front of him instead of crouching.

Seeing his Alpha like that is enough to halt all the negativity swirling in his mind because _that’s it—_ that’s why all of this will be worth it.

Adam is going to have a family with this wonderful, charming goof of an Alpha.

He curls against Blake and lets his mate calm him down.

“I know you’re uncomfortable, darling,” he drawls softly, his breath warm against Adam’s forehead, “I know you feel useless and fat but you’re not, alright? You’re beautiful, the extra weight are our children and everything they need to grow healthy inside their Omega daddy. If you wanna bitch about it and blame it all on me, I’m not gonna think less of you. I’ll still think you’re the best mate on Earth.”

 “I can’t do that,” Adam argues, frowning, “I wanted this.”

Blake kisses his hairline, persistent. “I wanted it too, Adam. You’ve put up with so much for me, for our family. I’m so damn proud of you. So yeah, you can do whatever you want.”

Adam beams and kisses his mate’s neck, nipping playfully at his claiming mark. Blake grunts lowly, his scent changing from concerned to aroused Alpha in the blink of an eye.

“Well okay then,” Adam deadpans, “No sex until the babies are born.”

He can’t stop laughing when he straightens up and catches Blake pouting.

“I was kidding, dumbass.”

Blake smiles as if Adam had just given him a gift and pretty much pounces him once they’re back in their bedroom.

Adam has gone a long, long while without Alpha cock. He’s not going to complain about getting more.

***

They go to a couple of classes to prepare for labor but it really doesn’t look like they need them. Blake is a natural when it comes to soothe Adam—even when Adam is being stupid and pretending he doesn’t need to be soothed—and they don’t need to learn how to move and breathe as a unity to lessen the pain that the Omega will suffer during it. They’re already mostly synchronized on a daily basis.

The instructors use them as example and Adam loves knowing they’re doing it right so he doesn’t mind.

Blake teases him about being a show-off. Adam shrugs.

“You don’t exactly like me for being humble,” he tells his Alpha.

Blake laughs and kisses his shoulder as they’re down on a mat in the middle of a breathing exercise, Adam’s back pillowed on his mate’s chest, his huge belly a heavy but beloved weight in his front.

“Damn right.”

***

Blake is close, Adam can feel it in the way his hips stutter and lose rhythm and how his knot is about to get trapped inside him.

He feels awful for doing this but he has to, knows instinctively that he needs to do it.

“Don’t,” he pants, “Don’t knot me, Alpha. I feel funny.”

His mate pulls out immediately and spurts all over Adam’s back, jacking himself off in a manner that Adam can tell is rough and frustrated.

He’s about to turn his head to apologize when his water breaks and his knees give out from under him, leaving him panting on his side and utterly baffled.

“Babies are coming,” he grunts unnecessarily throughout his first contraction, “We have time for a shower, right?”

Blake looks a little nervous but nods, already helping him off the bed. “We should hurry just in case.”

Their hands are shaky as they wash each other and Adam wants to laugh about it. He’s early in almost a week and neither of them were expecting this to happen so suddenly—doctor said it’d take hours but Adam feels like the babies are kicking and pushing to come out right this fucking second.

He can barely walk out of the house and curl on the backseat of Blake’s truck, already sobbing from the contractions.

The Country star drops off Adam’s bag on the front seat and rushes to the driver’s seat, wheels screeching with the speed he uses to drive out of the garage.

Adam takes deep breaths and counts the minutes between contractions or tries to—every time another one comes he forgets what he’s doing and can do nothing but writhe in pain.

“Blake,” he whimpers ten minutes later, eyes tightly shut as he hears his mate stepping on the gas, “ _Alpha_ , they’re coming, I can’t—“

“We’re almost there, Adam,” Blake promises, voice urgent. The car doesn’t slow down in the whole journey, not even for a second. They must’ve overlooked all the red lights, Adam thinks absently, “Almost there. Don’t push, okay? Don’t push.”

 _Don’t push_ , Adam thinks, and unsuccessfully tries to appease himself and their children by stroking his abdomen every time it relaxes between strong contractions.

***

Adam is having contractions every three minutes by the time they make it to the clinic.

His doctor and her team scramble into action, moving him quickly into one of the delivery rooms after checking him briefly.

She laughs when they admit they were having sex not even half an hour ago and have been at it for quite a while.

“That explains it,” she says, wiping the corner of her eyes before adjusting a mask over her nose and mouth, “I don’t usually recommend that for first births because the couples are too anxious for that but it’s the best way of easing the pain of labor and speeding things up. Your babies will come out in no time. You guys have good instincts.”

Blake perks up at the approval, already wearing a light blue pair of scrubs. It brings out his eyes in a way that makes Adam forget the pain for a little bit and the fact that he’s stark naked with other six people in the room.

He must make some kind of face at him because his mate leans down to kiss him and beams at him before covering half his face with a mask. One of his curls is sticking out of the cap and Adam is about to laugh when another contraction comes.  They’re even more frequent now.

He grunts and squirms in pain on the bed.

“Can I fucking push now?” he protests, moaning when a nurse guides him to lie on his back—it hurts more if he does—so she can clean his thighs and groin and secure his legs to the bed.

Blake takes his hand and brushes sticky hair off his forehead as the doctor sits on a small stool between his legs and tells him to push when the next contraction comes.

Adam curses all the way through the first baby coming out, can barely hear when everyone congratulates him and announces it’s a girl.

He catches a glimpse of her and they whisk her away to wash her as she wails heartily.

Blake seems torn between watching her and Adam but the Omega grips his forearm like a vice and grits out a threat.

“If you leave me now, Shelton, I swear I’ll kill you.”

Blake risks kissing his forehead, wiping the sweat from his face as the doctor instructs him to breathe because the other baby is coming _now_. He’s whispering things to Adam and probably being really sweet but he can’t listen to him, he just knows that he has to push.

He whines through it this time, collapsing on the bed as soon as the second baby is out and squealing and he checks his tiny son has two legs and two arms just like he should.

“Give him some water and keep him awake,” the Beta says to Blake, “The placentas are coming next.”

It’s a good thing his legs are kept in the correct position with straps. Adam feels like there’s not an ounce of strength left in his body.

His head sags against his mate’s neck. Their babies are crying closer now and he realizes absently Blake must have them in his arms.

“I wanna see them,” he mumbles, reaching with a blind hand to grab Blake’s arm.

“Then open your eyes, sweetheart,” Blake tells him. Adam looks through half-lidded eyes at two baby hats in his mate’s arms, “You’ll hold them in a minute, just push when the doctor says, okay? You’re doing great.”

When it’s finally over Blake strips the babies and leaves them carefully on Adam’s belly. He gathers some energy to kiss their children on their tiny foreheads and looks at them in awe, holding them close as Blake nuzzles his hair.

They are given some privacy to bond with their babies and Adam tries not to wince too much when they latch on to him and start suckling.

They don’t have teeth yet but fuck, they’re strong and apparently starving.

“They’re so beautiful,” he murmurs, exhausted.

“And ours,” Blake fills in, watching them with a soft smile on his face, “How do you wanna name them?”

Adam planned letting Blake name one of the babies after his brother if they had a boy and they did so he sucks in air and hopes his mate doesn’t start crying because he’s barely holding his emotions in check as it is.

“Richie,” he says, “And Dalia.”

His Alpha holds steady for him and the babies even though his scent gets almost overwhelmingly thick with affection.

“Richie and Dalia Levine-Shelton it is,” Blake states, voice shaky, and Adam accepts the kiss he’s given, wishing he had an extra arm to comfort his incredible mate with.

He does once they put the babies in their cribs and he’s ten seconds from falling asleep.

“You okay?” he asks, cupping Blake’s head in his hands, the IV getting a bit in the way.

Blake nuzzles his palm and kisses it, looking at Adam like he just climbed up the sky and hung the Moon there for him.

“Never been better,” he assures, eyes shimmering, “Thank you.”

***

The first weeks of parenthood are awful.

Adam feels like he hasn’t slept in a year, feels like the minute he closes his eyes one of their kids wails just to get on his nerves.

Blake offers to help but that really means shit when Adam is the only one that can breastfeed and the babies need to eat every two hours.

He does love feeding them, as much as he bitches about it and how much his breasts hurt. He holds them delicately in his arms by turns and gives them all his attention, looking down at them and caressing their tiny hands and noses as they gulp and make soft happy noises at him. He makes sure their noses are never crushed while they’re suckling and encourages them to play with their hands and feet in their cribs when they’re awake.

Their eyes are not quite blue but Adam doesn’t care. It’ll be months until their colors settle and he can always ask Blake to put more babies in him if it’s really that important—it’s not but he thinks his Alpha would like that anyway—besides, they have Blake’s nose and dimples and every time they smile Adam gets more smitten.

His mate does everything he can to make things easier for him.

Adam has woken up in bed after dozing off on the rocking chair of the nursery with his nipples covered in moisturizing cream and his Alpha snoring softly beside him with an arm around his waist way too many times to count.

When it’s not time to feed them and Richie and Dalia are just being—well, babies, really, since all they can do is sleep and cry—Blake turns off the monitor and tiptoes to the other room to let Adam sleep.

He’s good at comforting them, singing lullabies to them in his falsetto so they don’t get spooked by his deep voice.

Adam sometimes cheats and stands by the doorframe just watching Blake take care of their children with a loopy smile on his face.

He’d do it all again in a heartbeat if this is the result, he’s sure of it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please keep in mind that Adam is a true hermaphrodite in this story. While this intersex condition would cause his genitalia to be a mix not quite like male or female in-you know-the real world, I'm taking artistic liberties here and saying that Adam has both an average sized penis and an opening with smaller labia than a normal vulva but otherwise quite similar (except for the slick-producing thing) because that's how I picture an Omega to be. It varies depending on the author but I'm not a fan of the whole anus-magically-connected-to-uterus stuff most work with.
> 
> This is pretty much more porn and some other indulgences. I'll go hide in the corner now lol.

The arrival of their children disrupt more than their sleeping habits.

Blake has heard about it; how the desire and romance between mates dies or gets weaker at best. Omegas can’t focus, they say, on being both ‘bed warmers’—and holy crap, how does he hate that term but it’s what most people say—and caretakers and they will always pick the babies over the Alpha. If the Alpha wants them, they’ll need to take them and mount them.

It doesn’t worry Blake. The bond he shares with his mate is different, stronger than any other he’s ever witnessed or heard of, and he’s confident that won’t happen to them.

He believes it even when a month after their kids are born Adam still finds excuses to postpone sex.

He believes it even before his nose picks up Adam’s own arousal at Blake doing mundane things such as changing a burnt out bulb or taking care of Richie and Dalia, even before he sniffs deeper and detects the underlying shame and insecurity the changes in Adam’s body have left him with.

He’s patient, his instincts advising him against forcing anything between them. He gives his Omega what he needs; a father for their children and a warm body to cuddle with at night.

Adam has shaken the weight from the pregnancy off at an almost alarming rate. It’s just been over a month and he’s almost as lean and supple as he was when they met, a tiny bit of fat around his middle and hips the only memory of it along with his breasts that are still big for nursing.

The first night they have sex again, it’s the first and only chance he needs to fix this between them; to make Adam understand Blake will still love him—and love taking him—no matter how much his body changes.

He needs to show Adam how he feels, how he’ll still feel when his mate is older, heavier and less smooth and he’ll be damned if he doesn’t do a great job at it.

Adam kneels beside the bed and unzips him quickly, looking up almost shyly after licking the tip of his cock and sucking it into his mouth.

Blake is afraid any sudden movement will make his anxious mate shy away from him. He fists the edge of the bed and rocks his hips the slightest bit up to Adam’s wet and welcoming heat, eyes half-lidded in pleasure.

His Omega moans around his already erect length—he hardly needs a thing besides having Adam by his side to get it up and even less than that sometimes, the little hint of his enticing scent clinging to his own clothes when he goes out enough to get him going—throat vibrating and constricting around him.

Blake grunts, one of his hands rising to hold Adam’s nape as he starts fucking his mouth with as much gentleness as he can muster after unending weeks of having nothing but his hand as company, the other firm on the mattress to push himself up.

His Alpha instincts are _singing_ in delight and on their way to roar in complete satisfaction; his mate’s utter and beautiful submission is everything he’s ever wanted, the unique aroma of Adam’s slick thick in the air and almost heady on his tongue getting him practically high as his cock is sucked without restraint.

He doesn’t know when Adam learned to do this—to very slowly and deliberately relax his muscles and tame his gag reflex enough to take him all the way down, always inhaling carefully through his nose, and let Blake knot his mouth like they’ve been doing that forever, his playful green-gold eyes constantly locked with Blake’s stunned and heated stare.

His orgasm hits him so hard and suddenly he’s emptying himself down Adam’s eager throat without a single warning besides the racing and faltering of his hips.

Adam doesn’t seem to mind; he gulps every last bit of it and sighs around Blake’s length, legs shifting on the floor to wait out his Alpha’s knot.

Blake strokes his mate’s hair in adoring brushes of his hand, fingers carding through Adam’s sweaty hair and thumb tracing his eyebrow.

He spends the time they’re tied together admiring the shape of himself plain in Adam’s neck, outlining it with his fingers and feeling it right on his cock; the shots of his release getting thicker with how hot this makes him. Adam suckles with a filthy little slurping noise, eyes closed and fluttering, cheeks hollowed-out as he takes every drop of what the Alpha’s giving him.

“Practiced with my fist,” Adam explains once they can separate, voice fucked-out in a glaringly obvious way that sends shocks down Blake’s spine, and curls up on his chest as if they were done already, “And huh—cucumbers.”

Blake laughs contentedly, both at the ridiculous admission and the pre-emptive reassurance that his mate hasn’t strayed from him to get this much experience in oral sex before his ugly Alpha side can come up to ruin this moment for them with possessiveness.

“And watching videos on YouTube?” he teases, laughing more when Adam’s blush deepens, “Oh my Gosh, you did.”

“RedTube,” Adam clarifies, rubbing his face on Blake’s shirt, groaning, “Stop laughing at me, jackass, I did it for you!”

“I know you did, sweetheart,” he appeases, kissing Adam’s forehead as he takes a couple more minutes to regain his breath. He’s going to need it soon for what he’s planned, “I know you did.”

He kisses Adam deeply to both get the mood back and taste himself in his mate’s mouth. His Omega whines low in his throat, simultaneously trying to get closer to rut against his thigh and get away so Blake’s fingers can’t undo the ties of his sweatpants.

Adam is hard but his smell gets overpowered by unease soon enough.

“I—I have to,” he stammers, high-pitched and fast, “C-Check the babies, they need me.”

Blake doesn’t relinquish his hold of his mate’s hips and steals another heated kiss, pleased when they break apart and Adam goes cross-eyed looking at his lips at the close range. “Not right now, they don’t.”

For a moment, he fears he’ll need to use his Alpha voice on him—something he rarely does and rarely enjoys—but Adam consents and lets Blake take his pants off after one more kiss and caresses on his back.

He leaves the loose hoodie Adam’s wearing—that is actually his, Blake notes with approval— on and rubs Adam’s thighs soothingly, his dick already interested in what they’re about to do. He’s not dumb and is more than aware Adam is too self-conscious about his breasts now to take it off without ruining the moment.

When Adam goes to present for him, Blake stops him.

“You’re gonna sit on my face now,” he instructs, lying down in the bed and beckoning Adam to him, “I’m gonna make you feel good, honey, c’mere.”

He can smell the hesitance around them, pouring out of Adam like rain in a summer storm but his mate overcomes it—either because he wants to submit to him or because he trusts him to make him change his mind or both—and does as he’s told.

Blake goes to town, lapping at his Omega’s sack until he has him squirming and moaning over him. Then he moves on to his entrance, right between his balls and his asshole, poking flushed and shiny from all the slick that Adam is producing in response to no one and nothing but his Alpha.

Omegas enjoy this more than a blow job—not that Adam doesn’t enjoy the occasional suction around his dick but this time Blake is aiming for something stronger, something that can make his mate come undone, and this is it.

Adam always keeps it groomed and pretty so opening it with his fingertips and licking into him is no chore at all. He’s still firm and tight in there despite of giving birth and he’s so wet Blake has to gulp the sweet and thick fluid down several times and stick two fingers in him before he can get to his goal; his clit.

He flicks it with his tongue softly, softly enough to get the response he was looking for; Adam cries out, thighs quivering at the sides of Blake’s head, and his hips press down before retreating and staying still as if ashamed of what he just did.

Blake grips one of Adam’s thighs and pulls him down until he’s practically smothering him, his nose pressed against his balls as his tongue brushes his clit over and over, tirelessly.

By then, Adam is the beautiful mess he pictured; jerking himself off chaotically while Blake eats him out and gently fucks him with his fingers, slick leaking out of him and around his hand so much that it drips on Blake’s chin. He can hear Adam clutching at the headboard, scratching it with blunt nails, moaning for all he’s worth while pushing down on Blake’s face.

Adam’s smell and the sounds he’s making—the words he’s uttering, pleading his Alpha to keep going and confessing in hushed throaty whimpers how good Blake is making him feel—are more than enough to have the Alpha’s knot swelling and growing into nothing but air and he’s tempted to let go of Adam’s thigh to relieve some of the pressure in it but only for a second.

He just holds Adam tighter and keeps going, tongue more daring now as it twists around his clit and presses, lick-licking at it until he sucks it softly into his mouth, barely surrounding it with his lips.

“Oh, oh, _oh_ —Alpha!” Adam moans, loud and lewd as the Alpha curls his fingers inside and plants filthy kisses on his clit, “Fuck, don’t stop, don’t— _oh_ —oh, please, fuck me, fuck me, fuck me right now, please I want your knot so bad, please I need you inside me—“

Blake goes down on him harder in reply, telling Adam without words he’s not fucking him until his Omega comes from this and this alone.

He withdraws his fingers and slick trickles down his neck and glistens beneath the fingers he’s bruising Adam’s thighs with.

Adam has never been this wet outside of his heat and it pleases Blake so much he forgets about making it last longer.

He presses down on Adam’s clit with his tongue one last time and the Omega comes with a shout, slumping over him completely spent and loose.

He goes meekly when Blake lifts him to straighten up in the bed and lean his back on the headboard,  lowering his mate onto his aching, stiff member as soon as he deems the position a good one for them. Adam whimpers, wriggling, and laps at Blake’s face like a kitten to get a taste of his own juices as the Alpha pushes into him slowly but deeply.

He’s still dressed, only his cock inside Adam bare as he needs it to be, and both him and Adam are so hot and red in their clothing it’s almost unbearable but Blake knows stopping isn’t an option.

Adam holds on to his shoulders for dear life, legs shaky around his hips, as Blake bounces them off the mattress with the up and downs of his hips and towards the edge of the bed, fixing his feet firmly on the floor to gain impetus and thrust deeper and harder inside his mate.

His Omega arches so much from the intense pleasure he’s making him feel that Blake loses sight of his face and has to get an arm around him to prevent him from falling off his dick; then Adam comes soon right when his knot pops as the perfect pretty Omega he’s always been for Blake and the Alpha starts filling him up with a long sated rumble that goes on and on, that he can’t seem to stop.

He’s amazed the babies didn’t wake up with all the noise they just made but incredibly grateful.

Hopefully they’ll sleep for a while longer; it feels like they’ll be tied together for at least half an hour.

He’s not done with Adam, not by a long shot, but this will have to do for now.

They doze briefly, cuddling together as they are, and he’s ready to pull out even though he’s hard again when Adam’s thighs clamp around his hips and he groans, ears straining towards the baby monitor they keep on the nightstand.

“Fuck, I missed your dick so much,” Adam confesses, muffled again his collarbone. His teeth close right over his claiming bite and Blake snarls out a curse, hips already thrusting up in tiny movements, “So much. Give it to me, Alpha, c’mon.”

He pulls out but only for the seconds it takes him to turn Adam around and mount him, sweaty chest pressed against his hot back, clothes clinging to their skin with sweat.

They fuck with stifled sounds of pleasure this time, small whines coming from the nursery signaling their children are too close to waking up to risk anything else.

***

Blake couldn’t even consider being away from his mate when he was pregnant. He did small gigs close to L.A. and always came back for dinner to tend to his Omega’s needs even though Adam insisted he’d be perfectly fine for a couple of days without him.

“You can’t take a break for what? A year?” Adam had chided him, “You can’t do that to your fans. You label is going to have your balls for lunch.”

Blake had stared at him, eyebrows raised. “And you can?”

Adam, the little shit, had outright smirked at him. “Yeah, well, there are _some_ pros to being the one with the baby bump.”

Blake still couldn’t leave his mate—a bone-rattling revulsion taking over him whenever he even thought about it.

He didn’t give it much thought; it was normal, after all, for newly mated Alphas to be overly protective of their families.

He still doesn’t give it much thought now with the twins almost three months old and Adam practically back to top shape and more than that; some days Blake gazes at him and is convinced Adam is actually thinner than when they met. The oversized sweaters and hoodies he wears to conceal the fact he’s nursing make him look lovely but also skinny coupled with the tight pants that he likes and that stirs old-fashioned drives in the darkest corners of Blake’s mind that are hard to shut down.

He wants to stay and protect Adam, protect Richie and Dalia. The Alpha in him is convinced that’s the one job that matters, the one thing he needs to do for the rest of his life.

So he packs lightly, actively trying not to think about what he’s doing—how he’s leaving the three lights of his life and won’t see them, won’t hold them in his arms for two long weeks—and focusing on how much he’s missed playing instead because he _has_ , he’s missed strapping a guitar on and singing until his throat is just this shy of sore.

He tours for two days; two places. He has a blast in each; meets new people, laughs and makes friends. There’s an undercurrent of discomfort everywhere he goes, tinting everything he does, but he doesn’t let it get to him.

He’ll get used to this, he tells himself, he’ll get used to missing his mate constantly and wishing he were here with him and he’ll just hug him much tighter when they reunite, that’s what he’s gonna do.

Then, the small plaid shirt that got mixed in his clothes stops smelling like mate, like _home_ and he can’t stop vomiting.

***

He wakes up slowly, splashing his way to consciousness through muddy, oppressing layers of something that doesn’t feel anything like sleep—more like he’s been kicked in the face by a horse and left to lie on the dirt.

Once he does, every fiber in his body stings. There’s a tube inside his nose going down his throat, taped to his face to keep it in place, and some part of him worries about not being able to fully feel it bothering him because it should but he can’t, he just—he’s so tired.

The walls are blinding white around him and he has to blink several times to be able to recognize Carson sitting by the bed, hushing him gently and holding something to his nose.

Blake nuzzles into it, inhaling deep enough to make his own breath hitch when literally no more air can make it into his lungs.

It’s one of Adam’s t-shirts and the scent of his mate washes through him like the best balm in the world; soothing every ache in him and slowing down the desperate thudding of his heart trapped like a bumblebee in a jar between his ribs.

It’s only after a few minutes of this that he wonders if he’s still in Minnesota, somewhere, and what exactly happened to him.

“Come on, buddy,” Carson tells him at the same time some nurses come in and arrange the bed up so he’s sitting, “Your mate is waiting for you all the way over in California. We better get going.”

Blake lets the nurses—all Betas, his mind supplies—work on him without a fight; they remove the tube and the IV and dress him up while he sways and blinks sluggishly, his previous train of thought completely forgotten at the assurance that he’ll be with Adam soon.

“My mate,” he repeats over and over, almost nonsensically, clutching the fabric in a hand and breathing into it as they leave the room and some doctors nod at them in farewell, “Adam.”

“Yeah, big guy,” Carson promises him patiently, dragging him to the exit by the elbow, “You’ll be with your mate soon.”

***

The flight only takes three hours but by the end of it Blake is queasy and about to keel over.

There’s a sourly-looking doctor waiting for him outside the gate at the airport.

He sticks a needle in his neck before he can react but Blake trusts in the friend by his side and is thankful for the respite.

***

The next time he wakes up, it doesn’t take a monumental effort to open his eyes.

His body knows the reward, if he does, will be great; his Omega is right here, curled up by his side, and looks at him tenderly before tipping his head and offering his neck.

He’s as beautiful as he’s ever been, possibly more now that the Alpha aches to see him and feel him; hazel eyes changing hue every time he blinks, pink lips moist and half parted to greet him, and his claiming mark is plain as always on his skin just as it should be.

Blake scents him intensely, nose going up gradually from Adam’s bony collarbone to his ears and nape. He burrows into his shoulder, breathing deep, hands holding the familiar width of his mate’s waist.

Adam speaks even as a stream of slick wets the sweet span between his cheeks, even as Blake laps at the point where jaw meets neck. “Alpha,” he sighs, shivering, and babbles, “I’m so glad you’re here now, it was driving me crazy that I couldn’t go and be with you while you were sick but the babies—I couldn’t leave them. Are you okay?”

Blake pauses, only slightly, and keeps nuzzling his mate absently as he forces himself to remember what happened.

There are several things he doesn’t understand but he knows that he’s okay now; he’s okay because Adam is here and nothing hurts for the first time in days.

“’M okay now, sweetheart,” he reassures, accent thicker than usual, “Sorry for scaring you.”

Adam is so sincere it’s intoxicating—his concerned Omega pheromones are wreaking havoc in the Alpha’s system, he can still smell intense fear in him; concocted only because of him and for him.

“No one will tell me what you had,” Adam complains with a pout, “I’m your mate, I deserve to know what happened to you.”

Blake hums in agreement, kissing Adam’s beautiful face here and there.

He has some idea about what this could be but the outcome of it is not one he wants to face so he’ll ignore it for now and pay all the attention he’s been dying to give to his mate.

“You got my shirt?” Adam asks, going docilely when Blake pulls him under him and covers him with his body, something absurdly primal in him demanding him to do so. His mate looks up at him and ducks his head prettily, all trust and submission, “They said it’d help you feel better.”

“I did,” Blake drawls, voice going low and raspy with their mixed scents in the room, “Thank you.”

Adam blushes then, eyes darting to the door, and bites his lip. “The doctor... he said you’d feel just like yourself again if you—if you knotted me.”

It’s not an uncommon method to improve Alphas’ health. Endorphins are said to work magic in their bodies and increase healing at rates no medication or procedure can replicate.

Blake gulps heavily and squashes the urge to take Adam right where they are, the large window on the wall in front of the bed—from where, he supposes, a bunch of doctors specialized on Alphas are looking at them—be damned.

He knows how the younger man feels about public sex. Medical advice or not, he’ll wait until they get home.

He’s not an animal. He won’t make his mate do something he’s not comfortable with; Adam’s wishes mean everything to him and he will respect them.

He must’ve said some of it aloud because Adam smiles at him and reaches up to cup his face.

“I know, Alpha,” he says, “I know that but you need this. Doctor said you wouldn’t understand what he has to tell you before we go if you don’t—you know—and he won’t talk to me.”

That has Blake bristling. “You’re my mate. Talking to you is the same as talking to me.”

Adam huffs. It’s not often he gets frustrated by his designation, but Blake can tell this time is one of those. “ _Omega_ , remember? Legally, it’s not the same. He’s not obligated to talk to me, just to you.”

Blake would turn and break the window in a thousand pieces right in the assholes’ faces if the thought of letting go of Adam weren’t so painful that it punches the breath out of him.

He collapses over his mate and noses the crook of his neck, hoping Adam’s smell will be enough to give him strength to get up and look for a less bigoted physician to attend him.

He’s hard, he’s been hard since he woke up but doing his best to keep that in the back of his mind. He’s so hard it _hurts_ —so hard he can barely think, so hard it’s worse than all the ruts he’s ever been through all combined in one—but he won’t—he _won’t_ —

“Blake?” Adam calls, worried, his fingers carding through the short hairs of the Country star’s nape just how he likes it. He groans, hips stuttering on their own accord to hump Adam’s thigh. He stops quickly, if barely, “Alpha? I know you’re in pain, I can smell it. Let me help, okay? Take what you need, I’m yours.”

With the last words, Blake’s world goes dark around the edges—all he can see is Adam beneath him, willing and breathtaking and absolutely _his_.  He kisses his mate filthily right away, feels his knot already swelling at the base of his cock just at having Adam keening against him.

The hospital gown is easy to take off. Adam kicks off his shoes hastily and Blake almost rips his skinny jeans with how much he needs to have his mate bare and spread under him.

It takes a few sweeps of his tongue between his legs, but soon enough his Omega is dripping wet for him and Blake can push into him and nestle between his thighs, grunting as he slams repeatedly into the perfect tight heat that he never, ever should’ve left.

***

His andrologist is an Alpha and that is no surprise.

Head clear now, the only reason Blake doesn’t kick him right out of his hospital room and demands another doctor is the fact he’s supposed to be the best in the country and the only one with some experience in his condition, according to Adam.

He pulls out a chair and sits at a respectful distance from his bed even though Blake is already dressed and pacing the room like a caged lion.

He wants to go home—needs to; to make amends to Adam and promise him this won’t happen again.

“I want my mate here with me,” he rumbles, annoyed.

The other Alpha casts an unimpressed look at him. “Sit down, Alpha Shelton,” he deadpans, “Normally, I don’t mind Alphas who are extremely attached to their bitches—“

 _I will punch him_ , Blake thinks but he does sit and clenches his fists enough to make them crack in warning, _I will punch him in the face and call Adam so he can kick him in the nuts._

“But your ailment is particularly belittling for an Alpha to have and it’s both my professional and personal opinion that you don’t share it with your Omega.”

“Well, fuck you,” Blake counters, “I’ll tell my mate anyway. Now out with it.”

There’s a tiny twitch in the doctor’s features. It gives Blake some small satisfaction.

“Mate withdrawal,” the Alpha informs him, “That’s what happened to you. Your bond with your Omega is so strong your body can’t take the separation, Mister Shelton. It’s infrequent for an Alpha to be this dependent of his mate. I’ve only seen three cases, including yours. The physicians down in the clinic where you were treated first saved your life by the simple act of procuring something with your mate’s scent on it to reduce the symptoms. It’s also the way this syndrome is diagnosed.”

Blake gawks for an entire minute before he can even think about asking a question.

“Is—is it treatable? Can I do something to—“

The andrologist cuts him off, dismissive. “You have to stay close to your Omega. That’s the treatment. I don’t advice you to spend longer than forty hours without your Omega under any circumstances. It could affect your health permanently.”

“But—“

“Your bitch seemed eager to oblige, Mister Shelton, and he’s your ‘true mate’, is he not? You have nothing to worry about. He’ll cater to you. You’re quite a lucky Alpha, despite of your beliefs. Many of us understand our position in society far better than you and still can’t find ours.”

That’s just about enough. Blake snarls as he stands to his full height and shoves the doctor out of his chair.

“Get the fuck out of my sight,” he orders, “And so help me, if I find out you publish even two words about me and my mate, I will sue you and the next time you practice medicine will be your next life.”

The Alpha bows his head at him and still somehow manages to look condescending. “Very well.”

***

Blake has gotten some bad news in his life but this— _this_ —this is something else.

It’s not his Alpha ego getting bruised what makes him cover his face with his hands and bend where he’s sitting in the bed as if his spine wasn’t capable of supporting him any longer.

Being an Alpha has never been the most important part of him and this doesn’t change it. Does it make him look weaker to outsiders? Sure, but fuck them. It’s because he has such a perfect thing—because he’s found what everyone else spends their whole life daydreaming with—that he has this little setback now and he wouldn’t change his relationship with Adam for anything, not even to go back to being a regular Alpha who isn’t so head over heels—both emotionally and physically—with his mate that he’d literally die being apart from him.

It’s fear, that’s what makes his gut clench, his hands to shake.

He doesn’t mind—Hell, he’d love—being with Adam all the time, not ever being away from him sounds like a freaking dream come true to him.

But his mate—his amazing, funny, talented, beautiful mate—his mate is no regular Omega and the fact that he hasn’t looked for some me-time ever since they met and mated gives Blake no delusions about it. Adam’s going to do it eventually and he won’t even ask, just like he shouldn’t because he’s his own person and Blake doesn’t own him—he just loves him.

Blake loves him and if his—if his condition makes Adam unhappy, he doesn’t know what he’ll do.

This is how Adam finds him; hunched with dread, eyes tightly shut, and his frightened scent is so potent he hears Adam stumbling when he comes into the room.

“Alpha?” he speaks, uncertain, and Blake opens his eyes at feeling his mate taking his hands in his and resting his chin on them.

Adam is kneeling on the floor between his legs, his Omega pheromones responding to his distress with some of his own; sweetened with concern and something that settles Blake in ways nothing else will ever do.

“Adam,” Blake rasps, “I’m not—I’m not dying, I swear, but I need a minute.”

Adam nods against his hands and doesn’t look up. He’s such a good Omega he intuits Blake can’t handle staring right now and nuzzles his cheek against his knuckles, patient and undemanding.

After a few minutes, he leans down to kiss Adam’s forehead and sighs.

“Let’s go home,” he announces. This is no conversation to have in a hospital room or anywhere else.

Adam jumps to his feet, nodding. “Yeah, I hate this place,” he quirks a smile for him and it’s forced, but Blake loves him even more for the effort, “C’mon, cowboy, let’s get you out of here.”

***

“The twins?” he asks as Adam drives them home.

“With my mom,” Adam replies, “I left them enough milk to last until dinner so we can have some alone time if you want.”

“I do,” Blake smiles slightly, guilt squeezing a fist right around his heart, “I’d love that.”

He fiddles with the radio stations until he finds one playing The Beatles and leaves it there since Adam loves them.

(They’re alright, but Blake bores easily of their music).

Adam frowns, knows all too well this is Blake’s first tactic of reconciliation whenever he screws up.

“What did you do?” he asks, turning to look at him on a red light, “And please, _please_ , don’t tell me you tried fucking some other Omega and that’s why you got sick because I swear—“

“What?” Blake cuts in, outraged, “No, of course not!”

Adam relaxes visibly at that. Their bond doesn’t allow either of them to be attracted to other people anymore but most of the time the rock star acts as if that were only true for him. Blake doesn’t resent him for that.

He can’t blame him for not trusting Alphas; he wouldn’t either. Most of his friends are Alphas to a tee and none of them are faithful, not even the ones who have Omegas as mates.

It makes him angry; watching how most of the time when an Alpha wants, an Alpha takes and if anyone’s feelings get hurt in the process, well, that’s too bad.

“We missed you, you know,” Adam says, driving with a shy smile, “Longest three days of my life and you’re talking with an Omega that’s never taken suppressants in his life so that’s saying something. And the babies—fuck, last night? They wouldn’t shut up, no matter what I did. I had to take them to our bedroom and sleep with them in our bed. I think your smell did the trick. They missed their Alpha dad.”

Blake looks at him, stunned and pleased in ways he can’t even put into words.

“What about their Omega daddy?” Blake inquires, grinning, “Did he miss me?”

“Dickhead,” Adam swears but gives him a fond smile, “What do you think?”

When they get home, Blake opens the door for Adam and kisses him against his Ferrari, passionate and lingering, both to make his mate swoon and to convince himself that what they have will last.

***

They’re knotted together, lying on their sides in their bed, and it’s very bad timing, but Blake only finds the courage to admit what’s going on with Adam’s sweaty skin pressed right against his—all of him; he figured out ways to make Adam feel beautiful even with his larger breasts and as long as they’re alone, he doesn’t mind showing them now.

“Mate withdrawal,” he blurts out, already apologetic, and waits for the fallout, “That’s what—what I have.”

Adam blinks at him, perhaps too sleepy to deal with this after a difficult night with their children and worrying about his sick mate miles away from him. Doesn’t help the Alpha has spent the last couple of hours fucking him to his heart’s content, either.

“Come again?” he asks.

“I got… sick without you,” Blake swallows, holds Adam tighter and forces everything out, “I’ll get sick every time we’re not together. Doctor said over forty hours could be really bad.”

“Really bad?” Adam repeats, gaping, hazel eyes brimming with unshed tears, “You could _die_?”

Blake does his best to stifle a flinch and nods. He presses his forehead against Adam’s and prays to God there’s something he can do to make this better for his mate.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers, “I’m so sorry, baby.”

Adam sounds light and cheerful, looks like he’s doing his best to suppress a big smile. “Don’t be, Alpha. I can’t believe you need me that much, are you kidding? Am I a bad person if I think it’s _awesome_?”

Blake does a double take, amazed. “You’re—you’re not mad?”

Adam ducks his head, his smile small but so genuine Blake is overwhelmed with relief. “Unless you’re like, super mad that you’re stuck with me not only until you die but also pretty much every single day of your life, then no.”

“I thought—“

“I know what you thought,” Adam fills in. His body clenches around Blake as if to command his whole attention on himself even though he already has it, always has ever since the Alpha first laid eyes on him.

He kisses Blake softly before continuing, “But Blake, being independent—it doesn’t mean being alone. It means being able to make your own choices and you let me do that. You always have. We’ll be okay. We’ll schedule our tours on different times and travel together—I don’t know, we’ll figure it out.”

Blake remembers the day a year ago when he was the one saying _we’ll be okay_ to Adam and knows that they will, for sure.

***

Their kids are six months old and healthy; they sit by themselves and play beside each other when they’re awake, giggling and making baby-talk with whoever is close to them, clapping and mimicking Adam when he sings and plays makeshift drums for them. They’re not crawling, not yet, but they roll on the floor and are so lively Blake wonders what he’s gonna do when they walk and run and he has to chase them to make sure they don’t hurt themselves in their haste to learn the world.

Every day they do something amazing and new that takes their parents’ breath away like thumping their tiny fists on their baby chairs and babbling _da-da_ to get Blake’s attention, their green-blue eyes stubborn and fixed on him. They play peak-a-boo and get so happy to see their dad’s face again it makes Blake’s heart skip a beat.

(He may or may not have taught them to call Adam ‘ma-ma’ but that’s a joke he regrets and that Adam still hasn’t completely forgiven him for).

They’re blindsided when their pediatrician informs them that unless they want more children in about nine-ten months, they need to go on birth control and soon. Since the babies are eating food now, the fact Adam is nursing won’t keep him from going into heat—and even when he’s not in heat, there’s a high chance he’ll get pregnant again unless they use protection.

They have a bit of a scare that day, both waiting and sniffing the air while the pregnancy test works. They haven’t discussed what they want to do—if they want more kids or not—but Adam is not as young as he looks and the strain his body went through with the twins is still too fresh either way. Better to save that conversation for another time.

The idea of wearing rubber has Blake making faces. Adam laughs at him, tells him that’s the way people who aren’t knothead Alphas have sex, but doesn’t push for them to start using condoms.

He drags the Alpha to a private clinic instead and proclaims he’s going to get an IUS—a small device that goes in his womb and prevents him from getting impregnated but still allows him to have his heats and be as much of an Omega as he’s always been.

So he goes with his mate, isn’t the least bit peeved Adam didn’t discuss every available option with him; it’s Adam’s body and Blake trusts him to do what’s best. No one would know better.

The doctor welcomes them warmly—which is refreshing, after Blake’s last ‘quality’ time with a lab coat—and ushers them into a room to get ready for the procedure. It’s quick, she promises, and it won’t hurt as long as the Alpha does his part and keeps Adam relaxed and soothed. Conducting a pelvic exam on a mated Omega without their mate present is difficult, she explains, and that has the Country artist wondering exactly how much discomfort Adam endured when he went to a doctor alone.

Adam strips from the waist down and hops onto a stretcher with supports for his legs. He squeezes Blake’s hand tight enough to hurt a little and turns his face to the side when the Beta lets him know she’s about to insert the speculum.

She’s only put the tip inside but Adam’s breath is already hitching, his body shuddering with the conscious effort he’s making not to squirm.

Blake does his best to comfort him whispering in his ear how good he’s doing and reminding him it’ll be over soon, his free hand kneading his mate’s brow to ease the tension in his muscles.

“It’s hard to believe you gave birth a few months ago, Mister Levine,” the doctor says, reaching to get a new speculum from a nearby box that looks a lot smaller and has Blake releasing the breath he’d been holding at seeing Adam so uncomfortable, “You’re fit down here as if you had a C-section instead.”

His mate’s reaction to the odd compliment has Blake biting back a laugh. “Huh—thanks?” Adam huffs, tensing again when the gloved hands open him to try again, “Blake—“

“I’m right here, sweetie,” he’s quick to reassure, nuzzling Adam’s nose with his own and lifting his head from the stretcher just enough to press his hand around his mate’s nape like he’d do if they were alone to have Adam relaxing for him, “You’re okay, I got you.”

It works like a charm; Adam cranes his neck, leaning into his touch, and makes a tiny surprised hiss when the medical instrument finally breaches him.

It’s actually quick after that, the IUS in place before either of them can ask about it again.

***

Adam’s first heat after the pregnancy hits a little over a month after he stops breastfeeding.

Blake is in town—he usually is and when he’s not he’s always a short flight away and only for a day, tops—but he’s supposed to be working on his new album so he’s not home, not at first, he’s at a studio trying his best not to think about his mate stretching on a mat in their living room, wearing a worn tank top now that his chest is back to being flat and masculine and the tightest pair of yoga pants he’s ever seen as he seems to delight in teasing the Alpha with the slim, perfect lines and few curves of his body.

He’s half-successful but it’s enough, the rasp in his voice fitting for the song he gets to record before getting Adam’s text.

 _It’s here_ , it reads, and those two words have Blake practically running out of the building. His producers laugh but don’t question him when he asks for three days off; it’s an unspoken rule to let an Alpha off the hook if he has a pretty enough mate to knot as excuse and he’s—for once—glad about the bias.

He comes across Adam’s mom when he gets home, the twins asleep in their car seats in both of her hands and a huge bag filled with their things hanging on her shoulder.

She kisses his cheek and winks at him. “You two have fun,” she says, her demeanor changing fast as she pokes Blake’s chest with a finger after he walks her to her car and gets her settled with the babies, “Take care of my son, you hear? It’s way too soon for him to be giving you more children if you want him healthy.”

Blake gulps contritely and nods despite he thinks the same and wasn’t planning anything else. “I will, ma’am.”

She looks at him dead in the eye and is seemingly convinced of his honesty. “Good.”

***

He finds Adam shivering under a cold shower, the wet clothes hugging his thin frame like a second skin and doing nothing to reduce the strong scent of fertile Omega that swirls in the air like a drug.

“Alpha,” Adam moans at seeing him, sobbing with relief when Blake touches him, catching him when his knees give out as he’s trying to get out of the tub, “Alpha, I can’t—I’m so hot, I—“

Blake kisses him, vehemently and shamelessly, before Adam can keep stuttering.

It’s only their third heat together but Blake’s body knows what to do and talking will not give his mate any respite, especially not now after almost a year and a half of not going through it—the burn and need are so foreign to Adam after all this time that his scent is sharp with anxiety and the Alpha wants to get rid of that tinge to enjoy his mate’s sweetness at its fullest as soon as possible.

Making love to Adam is mind-blowing and entrancing on a regular basis. Making love to him when he’s in heat, when he’s open and desperate and there’s not a thing in his mind except Blake’s knot stretching him wide—that’s something else.

It probably makes him every bit the selfish, dominant Alpha that he tries hard not to be but he loves these moments. He’s missed this. His ruts—and he’s had a couple since they’re together, outside of Adam’s heats—just aren’t the same.

He gets Adam out of his clothing lifting and tugging and ripping—Adam whines and begs through it all and Blake tries, he really does, to get them to the bed but has to pick Adam up and shove him against the wall, dripping wet as he is, when the Omega goes on all fours in front of him right outside the bathroom door and Blake gets slapped with the heady aroma of his mating urge and with the sight of it; Adam’s slick glistening all over his inner thighs, heavy spurts of it leaking out of him and making his mouth water and his knot to start swelling without a hand on him.

It’s all he can think not to give his Omega terrible rug burn; to pin him against the wall and slip right into him after a cursory stretch with his fingers that has both of them grunting and getting more frantic.

It’s so easy to hold Adam up, to put his mate’s knees on his elbows and fold him in two and fuck him so good he can’t even speak, can only pant his appreciation in little ‘oh’s and ‘mmm’s that get mixed with Blake’s satisfied groans.

Adam is so much smaller than him, it drives Blake insane with want; makes him want nothing but to feel Adam’s tiny body against him, hot and sweaty and so fucking _needy_ , and split him open on his cock.

When the Omega arches and comes on his knot, his head thudding against the wall, Blake can’t help it—he’s biting him, claiming him again, remaking his mating bite on top of the old one before he can even realize what he’s doing and too busy moaning his way through an orgasm that shakes his bones to care about anything but how his mate screams himself raw for him and the way his passage clenches around him exactly like a lover should; adamant and firm and tight, so tight the Alpha has no choice but to grind against him, pressing Adam’s pelvis against the solid wall behind, and draw punctuating circles with his hips as he fills him up.

Adam’s head falls on his shoulder, his long lashes tickling him as he wheezes and gathers a bit of strength to take them to wait his knot out in the bed and for a lull in their coupling that doesn’t feel like stopping would have them both crying in frustration.

His Omega peppers his chest with wet, sloppy kisses and murmurs things that Blake can’t completely make out but that have him twitching inside Adam and hoping to all Hell his body gets with the program and goes into a rut soon.

He understands more than enough— _fuck me full_ , _breed me_ and how far gone Adam is that he’s downright forgotten there’s no way Blake can do that but that have him promising he will all the same is probably the hottest thing he’s ever witnessed.

When Adam huskily asks him to feel where they’re joined with his fingers and he does and they’re so, so sticky and completely locked it gives Blake just the right push to stagger to the edge of their bed and spread Adam’s legs there to keep thrusting into him as soon as his knot goes down enough.

Adam writhes and fists the sheets, his eyes damp and barely open, egging Blake on like no Omega has ever managed to do with his legs around the Alpha’s hips and his back angled just so for Blake’s dick to hit the right spots inside him.

It’s hours before Blake can disentangle from his mate and even that takes great effort but he keeps his Omega hydrated, forcing as much food into him as he can during the pauses too, and by then his rut is thankfully full-blown; he’s able to knot Adam over and over, accepting him even when he’s about to take a hot shower to soothe the exhausted tingle in his muscles and his mate has other ideas.

Adam pushes Blake onto the toilet seat and sinks down on him, going up and down his length in trembling but obstinate movements with a squelchy sound that reverberates in the tiles of the bathroom. He’s sobbing in between long, breathy moans and Blake could bet he’s just as tired but the heat keeps him awake and aching and Blake is the one relief Adam has ever allowed himself to have and that—fuck, that makes him feel like the king of the world, knowing he’s the only one ever allowed to have Adam like this.

Blake kneads Adam’s ass cheeks firmly, enjoying how each fits so perfectly in his hands, and forgets all about his fatigue.

***

He has to rush back to the studio and feels vile leaving his mate alone and still sleeping the remnants of his heat off but Adam wakes up enough to kiss him goodbye sleepily and promises him it’s okay.

“I’ll nap and pick Richie and Dalia up,” he mumbles, hugging Blake’s pillow as he lies on his stomach and gives the Alpha a perfect view of what he’s been enjoying for the last three days, “You get your lazy ass to work, ‘kay?”

Blake chortles, kisses him one last time and does as he’s told.

***

He doesn’t warn Adam about not going very far even though his pheromones are still extra tempting and enthralling; he doesn’t do it because in his head, Adam is only driving to his mom’s and back home to wait for him.

He regrets it when Gwen comes running to him, interrupting the recording and paying no heed to the curses her actions cause.

“Blake, you better come to the parking lot,” she says, urgent, “Your mate is fighting another Alpha off. I don’t know for how long—“

Blake is running to the elevator and forgoing it for the stairs before she can even finish.

He’s never run so fast in his life. His heart is pounding, blaming him for this because he should’ve known better—he should have, even though Adam has always been good at taking care of himself, he should have because obviously his mate trusted him to do it and relaxed enough that he forgot, forgot how most Alphas react to Omegas post-heat even if they smell 100% claimed and fucked-out.

Reaching the parking lot seems to take ages. He doesn’t know if it takes him a minute or ten or sixty; his Omega’s scent is all around the place, stifling in a mixture of distress and heat-increased sweetness. His nose has no issues tracking him down and even if it had, the upset wails of his children and the shouts of his mate would be clue enough to tell him where to turn, where to go.

The first and only thing that he sees is Adam kicking a man Blake is not familiar with off while covering his neck with his arms and getting bitten on them in the Alpha’s impulse to get to his neck and replace Blake’s mark with his own so that the Omega stops struggling and submits to him.

It’s more than enough.

Blake has never going feral before but he does now, the need to protect his mate too strong for him to quell his instincts.

He doesn’t as much as stops seeing as he stops thinking; everything happens simultaneously in slow and fast motion and a part of him—the rational part—doesn’t process it, just acts.

He neutralizes every attempt his rival makes of overpowering him with speed and strength he’s never possessed; the blows and kicks that rain on him hardly a challenge for him to evade and rise against.

He boots every weak spot in his opponent’s body; his ribs, his kidneys, his kneecaps. He boxes him so hard in the face the Alpha can’t regain his footing and keeps swaying to the side for the rest of the fight and he’s this close to cracking his neck with a snap as he lifts him from the floor and _enjoys_ the gurgling sounds the daring but stupid Alpha makes as Blake throttles him when two familiar arms surround his neck and cling to him.

“Blake, stop it, stop!” Adam screams in his ear, desperate, “Alpha, please! That’s enough!”

Blake lets go of the now unconscious and severely injured Alpha. He steps back with Adam still holding on to his back, gripping his mate’s forearms tightly to stop like he asked, and lets Security deal with whatever the outcome of this is. There are plenty of witnesses that saw his mate being attacked and it’s his right as an Alpha to protect, to _kill_ to defend what’s his. He knows no one will question what he did and there’s not a smidgen of guilt in him for almost murdering someone.

He was going to take Adam away from him. He was _hurting_ Adam, ignoring the Omega’s protests to his advances, and to top it all he was doing it in front of his children! What was Blake supposed to do? Ask him to please leave his mate alone? Bullshit.

There’s a place and a time to be liberal and this wasn’t it.

It takes a long, deep breath of Adam’s scent to feel like himself again; a long inhale of warm honey and fresh carnations, of gunpowder and the pure wet smell of the land after a big storm, of pines and angel food cake and everything that’s always meant home to him all squeezed in a tiny package that’s just his.

His mate is unsettled and needs him.

He turns around, pulls the younger man into his arms and holds him. His hands roam Adam’s body, palming and looking for injuries he hasn’t spotted yet.

From the way his mate shivers and whimpers, Blake can tell his back is sore from being slammed against the car and held down with an elbow pressed on his ribs.

He breaks apart and checks him carefully, cupping one of Adam’s cheeks as his Omega stays still and cries quietly into his hand.

The bites on Adam’s arms aren’t new but the cuts on his knuckles and the blood beneath his nails is. Knowing his mate struggled that much against being claimed by another helps him calm down and he leans down to kiss Adam’s forehead, letting his Omega seek solace tucking his body against his.

Adam takes a long, shuddering breath and separates from him to crawl into the back seat and soothe their children, who are already quiet and just hiccupping at sensing their Omega dad’s smell going from distressed to quietened—from terrified to _safe_.

Everyone knows better than to approach them now, even if it is to help.

Blake gives a terse goodbye to his co-workers and drives away as Adam sits in the back and tries to soothe the twins with fragile cheer.

***

Blake washes his hands thoroughly and cleans Adam’s wounds when they get home.

They feed the babies and put them to bed before going to bed themselves and simply snuggling together, Blake raising his head every now and then to smooch his mate’s face tenderly.

Adam is quiet for a long while, scenting him and holding on to him with a white-knuckled grip.

Blake strokes his back at first, then starts humming one of his mate’s songs. That has Adam chuckling and finally getting out of his stupor.

“Was it my fault?” he asks, voice small, brow furrowed with worry as he straightens up on his elbows and looks at Blake, “I just—I wanted to surprise you, was that so wrong?”

“No,” Blake reassures him, raising his head  again to kiss his mate on the corner of his lips this time, a hand firm on the back of his neck, “No, it wasn’t. Smelling nice isn’t consenting, honey, it’s not your fault most Alphas can’t tell the difference.”

“I’ve—I’ve never had to wear scent blockers after my heat,” Adam admits, bashful, going back to scent Blake’s neck as if that were the only thing keeping him whole.

“You shouldn’t have to,” Blake murmurs, holding him a little tighter.

A shiver runs through Adam before he speaks again, quiet. “I told him I had an Alpha and he laughed—he laughed and told me he was going to fuck me until I forgot your name.”

It’s hard not to bristle, but Blake manages. Adam doesn’t need him snapping; he needs him calm and understanding.

“I’ll never let anyone touch you, Adam.”

Adam noses his claiming mark and burrows closer to him, a leg entwined between his own, and chuckles. “Because I’m yours?”

“Because I love you and unless you want them to,” _and you won’t_ , the Alpha side of him supplies, content, “They’re not allowed to.”

“And because I’m yours,” Adam adds cheekily, smiling as he leans over him, apparently not even the slightest bit surprised with his confession.

Blake supposes it’s a no-brainer at this point but it still makes him beam, how sure Adam’s been of the Alpha’s feelings for him that he doesn’t even falter in his speech and simply looks at him from underneath his lashes and grins, so open and dazzling he looks like a dream Blake never wants to wake up from.

“And because you’re mine,” he agrees, blissful, “And I’m yours.”

“Love you too,” Adam breathes against his lips and he does sound amazed this time, “My impossible Alpha.”

It’s a good thing the twins sleep six hours in a row now.

Blake takes his time to show his mate just how thankful he is that they’re made for each other and met against all odds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Gwen mentioned here is Gwen Sebastian.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is a different a/b/o au that i'm struggling to finish so i'm just leaving the first part here in case you guys can like... enjoy it a little bit (even though there's no smut, sorry) because maybe there are some of you aching to read some a/b/o shevine stuff just like i am lmao. 
> 
> i don't normally beg for feedback but please please tell me what you think.
> 
> ETA: there'll be no mpreg on this au. just warning you guys in case you were looking forward to that.

It’s the twenty first century and Blake might be an Alpha from the South but he’s no caveman, doesn’t enjoy stepping over people because he’s been lucky in the biology lottery, and that’s probably the only reason Mark Burnett selects him for the new singing competition NBC is going to air.

He’s in stitches the first time his agent tells him about it, he’s not gonna lie, but then he sits his ass down and watches The Voice Holland and he’s sold. He wants in, wants to help build artists from the ground up, wants to see them grow and get the dream of their lives just like it happened to him when he got his first hit.

He’s not told who the other coaches are going to be until the very last minute. He’s not offended but he could be; he knows he’s getting paid a lot less than them but he thinks there’s good reason for it.

He can’t exactly compete with Christina freaking Aguilera and Adam Levine; there’s not a soul in the world who doesn’t know who they are or haven’t at least heard their names, meanwhile Blake Shelton is very far from being even the most well-known country artist in America.

Meeting the two pretty Omegas is kind of undermining but that’s probably just him and his own personal funk. His fiancée broke up with him just a few months before the big day, the day she was finally going to let him claim her and have her as his mate, but Blake should’ve seen that coming after dating her for years and always getting the boot when he got too possessive. He was stupid enough to never let himself go one hundred percent Alpha and never go against her wishes and this is where decency and kindness has taken him; to have nothing but booze as his mistress and no energy to change that anytime soon.

He tells himself he’ll get a nice beautiful Beta to mate with because they’re a lot less trouble and almost as much fun as Omegas are and if that’s sexist as hell and offends some, well, that’s not his problem.

He got his heart broken and handed back to him in pieces. He gets to be an ass now.

***

He makes a habit of spiking his drinks and it turns into a joke which is fine by him. He’d rather be the clown than get pity from the people who are quickly becoming like family to him.

Watching Adam and Christina cat fight is almost as entertaining as the pile of—incredible and often nonsensical, bless his heart—shit Cee Lo spews when he’s inspired. Blake hasn’t laughed this hard in ages and it’s a nice belly-ache, one he’ll take to the gaping and excruciating void the unfinished mating left in him any day, and he’s so relaxed than he doesn’t even notice when he starts flirting with Adam.

Apparently they’re so good at making eyes at each other and cracking jokes that no grown man should find remotely funny but that make them double over in mirth that they’re pretty much the highlight of the show.

They get a mash-up name and all and after testing it on his tongue—Shevine—a few times he decides that yeah, he likes it.

Christina gets even more cutthroat with Adam since he’s getting most of the Alphas’ attention, spurring Cee Lo on constantly and being a feisty tease to Blake like that’s his actual job, and things get a little nasty for a while. When he tries meddling to help Adam—aren’t Omegas supposed to listen to Alphas? Not this Omega, Christina spits out to him—she starts shitting on him too.

Cee Lo just laughs at them all and pets his cat.

***

None of them knows what they’re doing but they seem to be doing a good job at it. The show is doing great, the live shows are at the top of the ratings every night it’s on, and they sign for two more seasons without much fuss.

He’s still the underdog, the one that’s paid the less even though he gets as much job done—and ever more, sometimes—than the rest of them, but he doesn’t give much of a crap about that. He has a chance at winning this, he knows he does because Dia is that great, and his team seemed happy with him and his coaching skills. It’s enough for him; mentoring gives him a kind of peace he didn’t even know he needed until he got it.

He’s not ready for life to get complicated again, not by a long shot, but of course that doesn’t stop it from happening.

***

Blake opens the door to a very drunk and possibly high Adam.

That’s not even the worst thing, either.

He sniffs the air and feels it like a punch to the gut; the soft, almost coy sweetness of the early stages of heat.

“Come  _on_ , dickhead, I know you want me,” Adam says, swaying in the threshold as Blake just gapes at him and fails to let him in to his rental place, “And I want you too, so what are we waiting for?”

“Adam, you can’t—“ he croaks, taking a step back and involuntarily giving Adam the go ahead to come in and close the door seemingly to just lean against it to give him the most alluring, pretty come hither look Blake has seen in his whole life, “You can’t be serious now, we’re friends! You’re not thinking—“

“You’re thinking too much,” Adam butts in and if he oozes sensuality out of his every pore on a good day then he’s sex on legs like this, skin flushed prettily and eyes bright with want if softer than Blake’s ever thought they’d be during heat, “What do you want, cowboy? I’ll make it happen, anything’s fair game with me.”

Blake’s instincts are the only ones that are pleased with this, with having one of the most desirable Omegas in the world in his doorstep because it’s his dick and his knot Adam has chosen this time, but he breathes through his mouth and seizes the moment Adam steps into his personal space in his tiptoes to cling to his neck to steer him to a guest room and lock him in.

He’s probably the only Alpha alive that would say no to Adam ever, let alone when he’s in goddamn  _heat_ , and his resolve wavers horribly between the tingling in his neck from the brief instant Adam scented him and the muffled screams coming from the other side of the door but he makes it to his own bedroom, takes a cold shower, and calls it a night.

***

Because he’s an ass it’s only in the morning he realizes he should’ve let Adam go, call his family or one of his friends to collect him and get him home safely, but it’s too damn late by now and he has to tie a thick scarf around the majority of his face to be able to get some water bottles and chips inside the room.

He’s so quick he doesn’t give Adam any time to jump him or even realize what’s going on until he’s already closing the door behind him, pretending the sobs he’s hearing aren’t desperate pleads for him to end Adam's misery and take him already.

“Please, Blake, don’t do this to me!” Adam cries, the desperate knocking that accompanied his pleads absent probably because he’s too beat after an entire night screaming himself hoarse, “Make me yours, Alpha, please!”

He takes one breath, one tiny intake of air saturated in Omega pheromones, but it keeps him hard as a rock for hours even though he relieves himself as often as he can bear. He trembles for hours too, barely stops every time his feet take him to Adam’s room like he’s on a trance.

He’s smelled other Omegas in heat often enough but nothing comes even close to how right and sweet and goddamn perfect Adam’s smell is; honey and caramel mixed with just the right amount of cinnamon and lemon to make it spicy and unique and mouth-watering.

He prays to all that’s good and holy that they can make it through two more days of this because God knows if he takes Adam’s offer his stupid body will betray them both and he will claim the younger man as mate without as much as a  _hey, would you mind_  first because they’re compatible enough—more than enough—and Blake is lonely, so very lonely it hurts to breathe at night unless he’s drunk enough to drown the pain.

***

They do make it, if barely, and Blake pads into the bedroom sheepishly to start making amends to his friend only to find him lying on the bed, with bloody knuckles still gripping the sheets tight enough to turn his fingers white and legs twitching non-stop beneath them, chest heaving as if he was still in pain with the bone-deep burn of a heat.

He frowns, inhales as deeply as he can only to confirm what his eyes are already telling him; Adam didn’t get himself off, not even once, and without relief the heat has left him limp and raw which—Christ, Blake didn’t even think that was actually possible, that an Omega could be so strong-willed right when they should be at their most vulnerable and unreasonable.

“Bud?” he calls softly.

Adam’s eyelids flutter open and he looks at Blake for only a second before staring at the sheets, “Let me use your phone and I’ll leave,” it’s all he says, his voice small and hoarse.

Blake hands him his phone but snatches it back when he hears another Alpha’s voice in the other end.

“What the hell, man?” Adam protests, swatting weakly at him like a newborn kitten to get it back, the covers barely keeping him decent enough for Blake not to get a full frontal view of exactly how hot Adam is naked, “You want me gone or not?”

“Who is that?” Blake growls, nerves and will threadbare after keeping himself in check for days on end. That he didn’t claim Adam doesn’t mean he wants anyone else doing it and his scent is still tantalizing, still too sweet to resist.

“It’s just James, you fucking jackass,” Adam hisses, “Not that I owe you shit of an explanation, now give it back.”

The Alpha side of him isn’t all too pleased with the way Adam’s treating him but he reminds himself he had it coming and lets Adam talk with his bandmate who is apparently coming to pick him up soon.

“Go away,” Adam says, adamant even though he’s about to cry again, when Blake tries to help him up and get him to the bathroom, but he’s a contrary bastard and pushes, only letting go when Adam reacts to his touch like he’s been burned, “Leave me the fuck alone!”

He watches Adam tripping out of bed, gripping the sheet tight around his nakedness like a shield, and dragging himself to the shower, closing the door after throwing a nasty, hurt look over his shoulder right at him only to fall on his knees inside and weep right against the door by the sound of it.

Blake stands on the other side with a hand almost scratching the surface with how much he wants to soothe the Omega but it’s still too risky and he knows touching Adam would inevitably end in what he’s been trying to stop for days now.

He has no choice but to leave his friend alone with his pain.

He has his own to deal with. He didn’t need this mess on top of it. It was already unbearable as it was.

He makes sure not to be around when James stops by and tells himself he doesn’t remember, doesn’t still feel Adam pressed in a perfect fit against his body.

Every fiber of his being is crying out for a new Omega now but he ignores it.

He’s got practice at hurting until the ache gets dull and distant after all.

He can take this new hurt, shove it right along with the old one deep inside himself.

***

He’s expecting the lead singer to be nasty and rude to him but Adam likes proving him wrong even on this and he isn’t vicious to Blake in the slightest; he’s just quiet and sad instead.

He looks at Blake like he doesn’t know who he is anymore, balking from even the hint of a touch, and the country singer can’t believe how much of an idiot he’s been, how he did exactly what he’s always prided himself of not doing—judging a book by its cover—and assumed Adam only wanted him for sex with no strings attached like he’s wanted pretty much everybody else at some point or another, always willing to spread his legs or stick his dick in people if they’re hot enough.

All the praise Adam’s showered him with since day one, all the giggles and innuendos and fond looks, he wasn’t just leading Blake on; he meant it, every last bit of it, he meant it when he said he thought Blake was tall and handsome, meant it when he defended Blake’s abilities as a vocalist to Christina, and meant it when he decided to trust Blake with his heat.

He can’t believe he’s missed all the signs, too busy licking wounds he helped inflicting on himself and too goddamn stubborn to appreciate Adam’s little gestures of affection, can’t believe he went and estranged the Omega when he was openly offering himself to Blake to mate and claim and do pretty much everything the Alpha could ever possibly want.

His heart has been locked away for too long for him to know if he loves Adam back but God help him, he wants to try and figure it out. Maybe all the grabbing, the smooches, the hugs, maybe he meant those too.

He can’t help but start hoping he won’t be alone anymore, not for much longer, if Adam finds it in him to forgive him, if the beautiful and unrepentant and gifted Omega still wants him as his Alpha.

***

The lives suffer with their skewed chemistry. Carson makes an herculean effort trying and not quite succeeding in keeping the focus away from them and Blake wants to sell his soul to the devil or whoever wants it in exchange of turning back time so he can get Adam back because the shy, anxious Omega in the other end of the row of red chairs can’t be the hyper, cocky little guy he’s come to care so much about.

He’s still not sure what he feels is love, his heart too numb with pain to be able to tell the difference, but he knows this; he would give his all just to make things the way they used to be.

He needs Adam to smile and laugh at him, needs the gorgeous lead singer to be funny and clever and adorable like he’s always been, needs him to look across the chairs between them and hold Blake’s gaze like that’s everything that he’s ever wanted and needed to be happy.

He’s an Alpha alright but he’s never wanted to be that guy; the kind of man who breaks a person into something small and unrecognizable and if doing the right thing has led them to this outcome then—well, then it wasn’t the right thing at all and he’s made a huge, awful mistake that he needs to fix.

***

Christina hits him with her fan the minute she gets Blake alone at the end of the week, sneaking into his trailer specifically to bite his head off.

“What did you do to him?” she grits out, and for someone who seemed dead set on making Adam’s life hell, she sure as hell looks livid, “I can’t smell you on him but I know it’s your fault so don’t you test me, Blake.”

“Wasn’t gonna,” Blake drawls, raising his hands in something as close as submission as he can muster with a furious Omega diva about to rip him a new one.

He tells her what happened, mostly because she reminds him of his sister in that moment, and the way her eyes go as big as saucers and she covers her mouth with her small hand doesn’t bode well at all.

“I don’t think he’ll ever be the same, Blake,” she states, sounding about as terrified as Blake feels, “You have no idea what you did to him.”

“Then tell me, damn it, Christina, help me!” he begs, Alpha pride be damned, “There has to be something I can do!”

The vocal prodigy stares at him for a long moment, her blue eyes unforgivingly cold. Blake doesn’t blink, doesn’t shy away from her scrutiny, and his stomach plummets to the ground when the female coach shakes her head and wipes angry tears from her eyes before they can mess her makeup.

“Quit,” she says, tone harsh and dead serious, “Quit and get as far away from him as you can. He’ll always be in pain now, especially when you’re around, so that’s the only thing you can do.”

Blake gapes and falls on his ass on the tiny couch in his trailer. He doesn’t stop Christina from leaving, has to take a minute to breathe through the horror twisting his gut in knots, and when he can finally move again he sneaks a peak through the blinds and watches her leading Adam to her trailer and cupping Adam’s face in her hands when he seems to object, refusing the comfort his fellow Omega wants to offer.

She mouths something that makes Adam change his mind and follow her meekly inside and the Alpha in him roars, displeased, as if Christina was a threat to the claim on the younger man that Blake was not enough of an Alpha to make.

He doesn’t need to keep prodding for information, has the feeling whatever it was he did to Adam is pretty similar to what Miranda did to him and isn’t that hysterical.

If he closes his eyes and is sober enough, he can feel the phantom pain of the bond that was never there between them, the bond he made space for in his heart and soul but that was never born because she didn’t want it to.

It’s a sting he would never wish upon anybody, not even the worst criminal in the world, and he huddles and joins his hands in prayer, vowing with everything he has that he will be a better man, a better Alpha, if only he’s given a second chance with Adam.

***

Javier wins by a hair and Blake is so happy for him and Adam that he forgets everything for an instant that is both too long and too short, stepping into the rock star’s personal space to pull him into a hug that makes the smaller man cry out in pain and almost pass out from it.

He stills, aware of every stare directed at them, and lets go of Adam’s waist as soon as he feels the Omega’s legs are steady enough to hold him up.

“Brother, just don’t,” CeeLo says beside him as Blake’s hands hover over Adam, the lead singer pale and shaky as he recoils from his touch.

Carson grips his shoulder, sympathetic, and he has no choice but to watch Adam stumble backstage without casting a single glance in Blake’s direction as if he was the sun and he would go blind if he looked at him from that close.

***

“Sorry about that,” Adam says through the phone, his voice straining to seem nonchalant, “It still hurts when you, you know, but thanks for—for not being a sore loser, I guess.”

Blake is amazed he gets the call at all. He’s aware he doesn’t deserve any explanation and yet Adam is giving him one anyway.

“You and Javier deserve it,” he states because it’s about all he can think that Adam won’t hang up to.

“So did you and Dia,” Adam points out, “We were just luckier this time around.”

“Adam,” he breathes out, closing his eyes against the flare of fear he feels and swallowing it down at best he can, “I never meant to hurt you like this, I—“

“I know,” Adam whispers and Blake can almost picture him in his house, looking out the window with those pretty hazel eyes brimming with tears he won’t shed in front of anyone, “I thought you felt the same way I feel about you, my bad.”

“Adam—“

“It’s okay,” his forgiving friend says with a laugh that’s too perfect to be genuine and Blake has to bite his lip not to scream  _no, no it’s not_ , “I just, I wish Carson had told me before that you don’t date Omegas.”

“You’re not just any Omega, Adam, please listen to me,” Blake pleads and Adam gives in and stays quiet but Blake’s words betray him, forsaking him when he needs them the most.

He doesn’t know how to explain what happened, how to make Adam understand he thought he was doing them both a favor.

“You’re right, I’m not,” the front man agrees at length, the ache in him apparent in his voice this time as he struggles to get the words out, “I’m ten times the fun but ten times the trouble, right? Not really worth it in the long run.”

“Adam, that’s not—“

“I gotta go now, cowboy, take care of yourself.”

Blake flings his phone against the wall when the dial tone is all he can hear, his iPhone breaking into pieces as he roars and destroys everything in sight.

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry i made you guys wait so much. i hope all the filthy smut in this makes up for it lmao.
> 
> i still think it sucks but i'm done. hopefully the next a/b/o au i write will actually be decent :(

Adam has always hated doing things on autopilot, doing anything halfheartedly just doesn’t sit well with him but he can’t remember the last time he didn’t drag his feet somewhere, can’t remember the last time he felt excited and thrilled and thankful for having the life he has.

Being an Omega has never been a chore for him—sure, it hasn’t exactly been a walk in the park either, but he’s learned to work with what he’s got—until a certain Sasquatch decided to shatter him by simply not being interested in him.

It’s not even something he can blame Blake for. Adam has always, always applauded free will; the chance of choosing whatever you want for yourself no matter what people or your own biology tells you to choose. Blake did exactly that refusing to take him, reveling against every fiber of Alpha in him that shouted loud and clear to Adam that he wanted the Omega very much but the rest of the package wasn’t appealing enough for the country singer to give in to his primal urges.

It’s kinda funny if he’s being purposefully ironic, how he’s been named the most desirable Omega by every magazine ever and he couldn’t manage to get the one Alpha he actually wanted to give him not even one kiss or hug that wasn’t platonic.

It makes him feel like he’s disgusting, like there’s nothing worthy in him to offer to anyone, which he knows it’s bullshit but his heart refuses to understand logic and also refuses to let Adam fuck his way through this agonizing misery that seems to smother him a little bit more with every breath he draws in.

He’s even having issues singing these days. Whenever he reaches within him to connect with the lyrics, he falls apart; it only makes sense, considering he’s been literally in pieces ever since his last heat.

He doesn’t know what he’s going to do, how he’s supposed to figure out how to stitch himself together and move on from this. Every time he tries to think about the future, he can only think back to the moment he met Blake and stupidly thought he was the one—the _right_ one, that Alpha who changed Adam’s views on pretty much everything important by making him realize he actually did want to get a mate, that he did want the whole deal with an Alpha if that Alpha was so charming and absolutely fucking _dumb_ but so very cute as that country son of a bitch who smelled like homemade cookies and chocolate and just about every single warm, safe thing Adam had ever felt tickling his nose.

He was too full of himself to even consider Blake might not even want him back.

He remembers thinking in the haze of those first hours of his heat that in the worst case scenario, he was going to have one hell of a night with a tall and handsome Alpha who would take care of him like very few had done.

He was so wrong.

He’s learned his lesson now, learned it the hard way, and it’s been so big of a blow he doesn’t recognize himself anymore.

He just—he can’t act like he’s bouncy and cocky and funny anymore when all he feels like it’s tremulous and insignificant, when even moving his fingers to play guitar has him doubting himself, wondering if he’s actually good enough for anyone to hear or see.

It’s like he’s been poisoned and he’s dying slowly from a bleeding that he can’t stop, from a gaping wound he can feel throbbing but can’t quite place, and he knows he should be scared about that drip draining life out of him but he can only feel absently relieved.

This will end one day, probably the same day his eyes are finally too heavy for him to open them again and then he’ll stop feeling worthless and small and stupid, he’ll stop thinking that maybe if he was different maybe Blake would’ve touched him at least one time before telling him he’s just too much of a slut and not enticing enough to be worth the effort.

***

“Adam,” James sighs patiently, trying to find Adam’s hands inside the long sweater paws he’s made sure he has to keep warm, “C’mon, we’re late already.”

He’s wearing that blue sweater that reminds him of Blake’s eyes and he hates it but it’s the only one he found remotely comfy today, the only one that didn’t make his skin itch, the only one that didn’t make him gag when he looked in the mirror.

That doesn’t mean he’s ready to go out though.

He’s been so useless lately he’s actually surprised the guys are still trying.

They should be looking for a new front man by now.

It’s only been four weeks but Adam knows he’s proven he’s just an inconvenience.

“Leave me alone,” he mutters, tucking his face back on his knees and hugging his legs tighter to his chest, scrunching his nose against the god-awful smell of needy, lonely Omega he’s been exuding no matter how much he drenches himself in scent blockers.

Of course, Blake’s reputation of Most Important Alpha in America means Adam could pretty much get on all fours in the middle of the street and still get no mate since everyone and their cousin know the country star estranged him.

Not even his bandmates, who Adam has always helped through their ruts, have come to him to look for company which only makes it worse.

Blake has not only shattered him but also obliterated any chance of Adam ever getting over him by patching his pain with another Alpha’s love.

It’s not fair at all.

“Buddy, listen to me,” James tries softly, kneeling in front of Adam’s pitiful frame on the couch, “You can’t just lock yourself in. It’s not healthy.”

“Who the fuck _cares_ ,” he bites out.

“I do!” James yells, livid enough his pheromones hit Adam in the face and make him shiver, “You think I’m happy seeing you like this?”

Adam takes a shuddering breath, ducking his head as he curls into an even tighter ball, “No but you don’t want me either,” he whispers.

“This isn’t about me, dude,” James counters, “It wasn’t me you visited during your heat. You chose him.”

“I didn’t choose this!” he shrieks, getting mad too because James has no fucking right to act like Adam picked Blake over him when the thing between them was never exclusive and they never talked about mating, “What the fuck do you want, man? Me admitting I should’ve gone to you? I didn’t even know that was a fucking option!”

James sighs tiredly, giving Adam a look that makes him feel like an even bigger hopeless case, and stands up, “I think I’m just gonna go.”

He sniffs as he hears his friend closing the door behind his back, mind swirling with possibilities that are just pipe dreams now.

He can’t explain why he went to Blake after a lifetime of locking himself up during his heats, not even trusting his Alpha friends to take care of him, not even Jesse who’s known him since before he presented.

His dogs jump on the sofa to cuddle with him as he stares numbly at the wall. They lick his face, bump their noses against him to get him out of it and whine when it’s not enough.

Adam wipes his cheeks absently and pets them for a long while, dreading the moment he’ll have to look at the time and count yet another day closer to his heat.

Christina warned him about spending it alone and he should really trust her on this; she’s made it through the same thing after all and she’s still alive and confident and beautiful and Adam has never felt worse in his life.

The only problem with that is that he actually needs an Alpha to regard him like he’s not leftovers and that—well, that’s easier said than done.

***

In the end he decides he’s just going to lie down and wait it out because he did it once and it hurt so bad it never truly went away but he made it.

He doubts it can get any worse and if it does, he doesn’t really care.

He scratches at his chest, at that point right behind his breastbone that stings like a motherfucker whenever he’s awake, and stocks up his bedroom with water bottles and salty snacks.

His heat is just around the corner when Blake knocks on his door.

***

They’ve been talking on the phone every now and then and it’s been horribly forced on his side, he knows that, so peering through the peephole and realizing it’s _him_ almost sends him spiraling into a panic attack but he breathes deeply and inhales Blake’s scent through the door, calming down enough to let him in timidly, making sure not to linger close to him no matter how much he still wants to.

He remembers how much Blake’s touch hurt after he turned the Omega down and retreats a couple of steps, as far as he can get without his heart hissing angrily at him to fucking _do_ something to get the Alpha to be into him as if that was still a possibility.

“Your timing really fucking sucks, you know,” he says cheekily, giving Blake his back for an instant to wince out of his sight because being obnoxious will hardly help his case but he can’t help trying to keep his pride at the very least. He already knows Blake doesn’t want him so he has little to lose, “It’s that time of the month again. You should go.”

The Alpha takes a deep breath, nostrils flaring slightly as he scents Adam from a distance.

Adam surreptitiously smells him too, his cheeks heating up when he picks that strong, sweet essence that he once thought could be his to get lost in.

He’s pretty sure his scent is giving him away but hopefully Blake won’t comment on that.

“I know you’re close again,” the country singer says, his accent sharpened with nerves that the Omega doesn’t get. It’s not like he’s going to kick him out; as toxic as Blake’s very presence is to him now, he still wants him near, he’s that stupid, “That’s why I came here. I want to help you, make things right between us. I want to claim you, like I should’ve done the first time.”

Adam’s breath hitches as his mind reels with the admission and he stares at the Alpha in sheer disbelief for a whole minute before gripping the piercing anger inside of him, deciding to use it as a shield against whatever lousy joke Blake is playing on him.

“You fucking _asshole_ ,” he snarls, knowing most Alphas would snap and hit him for daring to use that particular insult on them, pushing Blake’s chest with both hands until the taller man’s back hits the wall and punching him in the stomach for good measure, “You think this is funny!?”

Blake gapes at him, gingerly touching the abused places on his front as Adam retreats and refuses to linger in the deceiving open glint in those big blue eyes.

“I’m not—“ he stammers, “I’m not kidding, Adam, I know I was an ass to you and that it took me way too long to realize that I want you but I—I do.”

Adam stares at him, stunned, before shaking his head and trying to get more distance between them only for Blake to take his hand and drop to his knees in front of him.

His skin feels scorching hot where they’re touching and his eyes well up with tears at the sting but he doesn’t try to break free.

He’s never thought an Alpha could do a thing like this, adopt such a submissive posture to look up at him with such a beseeching expression on his face it steals Adam’s breath away.

“Please, Adam,” Blake begs and it isn’t the soft brush of his lips on the Omega’s knuckles what makes him give in but the way he touches his own chest in the same spot Adam knows the phantom of a bond that never happened stays and festers in, “I’d be honored to have you as mate, as my only mate. I know I’ll never need anybody else but you, honey.”

The country star has always had a talent for saying the right things at the right time and it’s not different now; Alphas can claim as many Omegas or Betas as they want but Adam doesn’t want to compete with anyone for Blake’s attention, he wants the Alpha all to himself and the promise that it’s exactly what he’s going to get makes his resolve crumble.

Blake doesn’t kiss him right away, nuzzling his nose and breathing warmly against his face instead after Adam kneels in front of him.

Having him close still prickles the wrong way but Adam is nothing if not stubborn and he’s willing to power through it if it means he’ll have the only Alpha he’s ever wanted to mate with bonded to him forever.

“Do you trust me?” the country star asks, quiet and intimate in ways that shouldn’t be possible before he’s been buried between Adam’s legs.

Adam startles, feeling calloused fingers caressing the delicate skin of his nape but not gripping him to submission just yet; it’s a nasty Alpha trick he’s always hated, how they can get whatever they want from an Omega by catching them unawares and pressing the right set of pheromones into them but Blake isn’t planning on taking advantage of him in such a way, he knows he doesn’t have it in him to be that cruel.

He leans into Blake’s palm when he understands his soon to be mate only wants to get him docile and compliant to dull the pain that’s wrecking him, threatening to turn their mating into torture for the Omega.

“Don’t make me regret it,” he answers, letting his eyes fall shut as he feels the Alpha’s grip shutting down almost every part of him, his senses going blurry and hazy and that bone-deep pang easing enough to let him breathe without hurting.

When Blake finally, finally kisses him he opens up to him instantly, arms circling his neck as the Alpha gets them both to their feet effortlessly, his big hands already proprietary on Adam’s waist.

***

It’s terrifying and humbling, how control slips from Adam like water going down the drain the instant Blake grasps the back of his neck in that way he’s always known how to do but has always refused to resort to.

He vowed to himself he was never going to let the Alpha side of him get the best of him and he doesn’t think he’s broken his promise; this isn’t something he’s doing for his own sake but for Adam’s, to dull the pain his touch still ignites in the rejected Omega.

His mouth is sweet and endearingly shy but skilled as it chases his, following his lead in every kiss they engage in on their way to Adam’s bedroom, the pop singer forced to stumble on his tiptoes to keep up with him.

He peels the clothes off the Omega’s body slowly, his breath catching a little bit more with every patch of skin that’s revealed because he’s so lovely he shouldn’t be real.

The ink decorating Adam’s body only serves to enhance how every line and shape is all perfect muscles and sinews and he kisses the tattoos on his torso reverently as his hands squeeze the smooth inside of the Omega’s thighs, marking both pale and dark patches of skin before closing his lips around a stiff nipple and suckling lightly.

Adam gasps beneath him, arching against his mouth as Blake’s nose picks the exact moment he starts leaking for him. His fingertips rub the soft, small folds of his entrance, smearing them with the sticky and thick fluid that’s oozing out of his very core, preparing him sweetly for the Alpha’s big girth so he can be loose and smooth down there for him.

He tries not to think about the fact Adam can’t stop this from happening if he changes his mind mid-way through it, pushes to the back of his head the possibility he’s just hurting him further by trying to fix what was meant to be perfect between them and that he ruined by being too blind and numb with past aches to grasp when he had the chance.

He parts Adam’s labia gently with his thumb and index fingers at the same time he goes higher with his mouth to suck a trail of lovebites on the Omega’s long, appealing neck, sticking two of his fingers in him easily as the pop singer writhes on the sheets and moans faintly.

His cock jerks against his zipper, straining to get closer to the inviting heat clenching around his fingers, and he regrets not stripping sooner because letting go of Adam now means hearing him whine and spread his legs to show him exactly what he’s missing.

The Omega’s cock juts against his belly and he surprises himself by taking it swiftly into his throat to make up for the long seconds they spent apart; Adam squeaks, more slick pouring out of him making a dirty wet sound as Blake drives three of his fingers inside him to test just how tight or loose he is, a dark part of him needing to deduce just with how many Alphas his mate has laid with like this.

A good Omega will always be tight no matter how many Alphas take them for a ride, he knows that, but it still appeases him to feel him clamping like a vice around his fingers, trembling when he twists his wrist and tries to go deeper despite of how cramped it feels in that tight little cunt that soon will fit around his big length like a glove as they mate.

He crooks his fingers to reach that spot inside Adam that makes any Omega cry out in intense pleasure and the lead man is no exception; he moans brokenly, hips shooting up to get more Blake’s fingertips to brush him right there at the same time the Alpha hollows his cheeks around him, determined to make Adam see how freaking good they are together despite of how far away every sensation must feel for him.

Adam’s body goes willingly when Blake’s hands guide him up a little so he can lick into him easily, eating him out expertly as he keeps the Omega’s thighs wide open for him with a hand and uses the other one to press against his clit every now and then, alternating with jerking him off in counterpoint to his tongue dipping in.

The Omega is nothing but a mass of loose want then, moaning and panting non-stop as Blake takes his time with him. He looks up from his place between Adam’s legs and his dick spasms as he watches the muscles on the smaller man’s belly rippling with every flick of his tongue in him and being patient has never been so hard but so rewarding at the same time.

He’s not only waiting for the Omega’s heat to start but also hoping he gets to show Adam how much he’s going to cherish him from now on, how there will be nothing but great and incredible things for him to feel whenever they’re together.

It’s easy to pinpoint the exact moment Adam’s scent changes, signaling it’s finally the right time for Blake to thrust inside and claim him; it’s like a fresh jar of honey spills all around them and there’s nothing Blake can do but taste it and get addicted to it.

Adam’s limbs reach for him weakly as Blake accommodates his weight on top of him, hips already rocking as he misses the mark and smears Adam’s groin with stripes of pre-come.

He hisses when he has to consciously stop himself and grip his dick in hand to set the tip right over Adam’s wet, trimmed pussy. He groans loudly as Adam stutters pretty, breathy moans at taking him in little by little, the big and heavy length splitting the Omega right up as he looks up at Blake with his jaw slack with pleasure.

And, Christ, he can’t believe he’s trembling with how good it is. He’s spent his fair share of nights with attractive, willing Omegas but none of them—not even Miranda—ever made him feel like he was slamming _home_ , like he was finding the last piece of a puzzle his heart obsessively pushed him to finish since his first rut.

“ _Adam_ ,” he sucks in air, his face sticky with Adam’s slick even after he licks around his mouth to clean himself. He has to close his eyes and stop mid-way in because it’s too good and he’s going to come before they even move and he can’t do that if he wants to make the Omega truly his, “Holy shit, you’re so amazing, I can’t—“

Adam shushes him by lapping at the mess on his chin and the corners of his mouth, his slim chest heaving as his ankles seem to spur Blake on by pushing against the small of his back, the Omega’s fingers digging into his back hard enough for his nails to graze and break skin.

He takes a deep breath that only erases his reasoning more, groaning as he leans down to kiss the pretty thing under him squeezing him just wet and tight enough to drive him nuts and catching Adam’s eyes blown dark behind half-lidded eyes that only seem to grow heavier and damp as Blake starts them on a fast but steady pace that he speeds up every time Adam clenches around him when he’s pushing in.

He tries to reach between them to grip Adam in hand but ends up clutching his thighs tighter instead, pushing him up onto his cock as they move frantically to coax Blake’s knot to pop and when it does it’s like the whole world stops, time standing still as a flash of scorching ecstasy rips through every cell in his body and he finds his teeth drawing blood from Adam’s stretched neck, his mouth closing half on the side and half on the back so that everyone who looks at him knows he’s taken.

Adam comes out of it slowly as Blake is peppering his face with kisses; they’re still tied together, they will be for a long while, and the wound on Adam’s neck is still bleeding which is a good sign.

It means it will scar and leave a mark, means the Omega wants him despite of all the mistakes Blake made and how scared he is deep down of losing himself because the world dictates he’s supposed to be a part of Blake and nothing else now, to be at his beck and call and never be his own person again.

Adam brushes the claiming bite with shaky fingertips, his eyes damp as he ducks his head probably to stop Blake from catching that anxious, afraid expression on his pretty face.

“You belong with me,” he whispers gently against Adam’s temple, feeling his mate shiver and make a soft noise of glee at his choice of words, his scent losing that tart edge of fear bit by bit, faster when Blake cups his face between his hands, coaxing him to look him in the eye, “But you’ll always be more than just mine.”

“Blake,” Adam sighs, his long lashes fluttering beautifully against his high cheekbones as Blake’s cock pulses inside him, reminding them both they’re far from being done yet, “ _Oh_. Thank you.”

He grunts, grinding relentlessly against the Omega so his knot rubs all the right places and he can clench around him and get Blake to spill into him again.

The come on Adam’s belly is dry by the time he pulls out a few inches, raising Adam’s hips with both hands and flipping him over on a whim, enjoying how Adam curses at being mounted but pushes right back onto his cock all the same, moaning loudly and going crazy when Blake takes advantage of the position to jack him off in time with his thrusts.

“Oh God Alpha, Alpha, _Blake_ ,” Adam all but screams, sweaty and horny and _his_ , elbows giving out making him present in the exact way the Alpha in him craves.

“Gonna come after just a minute of me fucking you right?” he teases, so fucking pleased and turned on his voice is nothing but a hoarse rumble, “Now that’s something I wanna see.”

He flicks Adam’s slit a few times, his other hand abandoning the dead grip he had on Adam’s sharp hipbone to push the heel of it against his clit and he feels the Omega gushing through a sudden, bone-melting release that gets him wet enough his slick drips down on the bedding as the Alpha keeps fucking him, groaning loudly because Adam clenches so tight around him it’s actually a feat to slide in and out of him until only the head is keeping the gorgeous lead man open, saving him that place he’s just claimed for himself forever.

He feeds Adam some water clumsily as they’re knotted the second time, holding the Omega in his lap as they try and fail to catch their breaths.

He scoops some slick from between his mate’s legs and sneaks his fingers between his cheeks, caressing the space there lightly until he bumps into the creased skin of his pucker and circles it firmly, pressing a finger in and making Adam’s back arch against his chest, the heat making him loose just about everywhere for him to touch.

The Alpha in him is dying to show Adam every hole and crevice and patch in his body is his but he slows down when pushing a couple of fingers in and making Adam lick and suck the fingers of his other hand brings the salty smell of tears to his nose, tears that he catches and wipes with his cheek as he nuzzles and soothes his mate in silent apology for overwhelming him, removing his fingers from him gently.

He cranes his neck to kiss him deeply, sighing in relief when Adam’s cloying scent loses that edge of fright and turns soft again.

“Sorry,” he mumbles, brushing Adam’s shoulder with his lips as the Omega wheezes, “I just want every inch of you, sweetheart, so bad.”

Adam keeps his head turned to him, smiling crookedly as his hips grind against him and he makes Blake grunt and push up into him even though there’s no way he’s going in deeper; they’re already tied together, as close as they’re ever going to get.

“You got me,” his mate reminds him in a breathy chuckle, “But your knot in me right now it’s my favorite thing and I want to feel it, no distractions.”

“That sounds great,” he accepts, satisfied to the point he starts rolling his hips again while squeezing Adam’s thighs just beside his groin, “This helps any?”

Adam whimpers, his spent cock twitching right next to one of Blake’s hands, so he takes it as a yes and keeps going, getting them both off three more times before he slips out and makes sure they both get some necessary hydration before going right back at it.

He doesn’t ask whether Adam has taken it up the ass before because that’d be tacky and rude but he quickly forgets about it; the heat makes Adam open up to him so beautifully it doesn’t matter which hole he’s using, it’s still wonderful, and the litany of small, filthy noises Adam makes for him only makes it better.

He doesn’t neglect him for an instant, rubbing his clit insistently as he rides his ass, pausing to watch how stretched and taunt his rim is around him whenever he can bear to break apart from him barely enough to do so.

He can hear Adam’s heart beating faster and faster as his knot swells but he caresses the elegant line of his spine to soothe him, sliding out of him and guiding himself to Adam’s pussy to knot them just as the Omega needs him to, never mind his instincts roaring at him to mark his mate up in every way that he can which includes coming deep inside his hole.

“Yes, _yes_ ,” Adam moans appreciatively, eagerly taking him back in and tightening around him so good that Blake’s eyes roll back in his head, “Alpha, fuck, your knot—“

“Yours,” Blake promises, rutting against him as he spills more of his seed inside him, “Right here, darling, swollen and big and hard just to keep you open and full.”

He’s never been the type to talk dirty in bed but he can’t seem to help himself and he’s glad that he can’t stop because Adam just moans louder and longer at his words, pressing against him keenly when Blake leans down to lick and nibble his nape, lapping at the bit of blood still oozing from his claiming bite.

He lies down on the bed when his knot goes down, every muscle on his body burning with exertion from the desperate mating they’re still in the middle of, and his Omega is already so attuned with him that he uses the brief break to go down on Blake, deep throating the country singer like there’s not a thing in the world he’d rather do than bobbing his head up and down to give him another hole to fuck, his hands stroking his balls and the bit he can’t take inside after getting him wet and ready to glide in and out of his mouth with firm licks.

He doesn’t even need to warn Adam about his impending orgasm; his mate takes a sniff at him, lips stretched around his cock, and knows so he pulls off of him with a wet pop and straddles him quickly so he can finish between his legs right where he needs him to, mewling and bending towards him as they finish together, every time they get there seemingly more in sync.

He has to sit up and grip Adam’s fingers tight to stop him from scratching the skin on the inside of his left arm raw, brow furrowed in concern as the Omega fights him and whimpers when he doesn’t yield.

“Get it off of me,” he snarls, fraught, and Blake understands with a jolt that his mate must be talking about the contraceptive patch attached to his skin that’s stopping Blake’s seed from catching inside him and his heat from being actually effective, “I want it off! Get it _off_ —“

“Shhhh,” he kisses Adam’s fingertips and then smooches his cheeks, placating, “There’s no rush, honey, we can wait.”

“B-But,” Adam hiccups, his eyes dark with lust but wide and sad as Blake denies him the one thing his instincts are demanding the most.

If he did get Adam pregnant his heat would stop right away but that’s not why he doesn’t want it to happen this time; they’re just not ready for a family, at least he knows he isn’t considering how stupidly long it took him to accept he wanted Adam by his side, how he had to pack and brood back in Tishomingo to understand he just couldn’t live without the Omega, not anymore.

“I want time to love you, Adam,” he murmurs against his Omega’s lips, “Just you. I want you just for me a while.”

The sheer want in his scent appeases the pop singer enough to stop trying to maul himself and he goes meekly when Blake pulls out only to bend him in two and toss his legs on his shoulders to slam home again and make him forget about everything that isn’t the place where they’re joined.

He tastes the mess they’ve made as Adam dozes a couple of hours later, breath catching and tiny little whimpers leaving his throat as his legs twitch and Blake licks into him shamelessly, still high with the thick smell of heat hanging in the air.

Adam comes to him lapping the inside of his inner lips and he screeches so prettily it goes right to Blake’s cock and he scrambles to get back in him, fucking him at a quick rhythm that has his mate’s toes curling and his scent softening as if being ravished like a bitch is exactly what he needs.

They share a kiss that’s only made more intoxicating with their lingering tastes as Blake slips into that sopping perfect little cunt for several minutes before taking Adam’s ass again, still slippery with pre-come and borrowed slick just waiting for him to fuck again.

Adam whines but hooks his legs on Blake’s thighs, gripping the Alpha’s ass hard enough to sting and pushing him closer against him, and after a few minutes of sharpening everything they’re feeling by playing like that Blake goes back to the welcoming heat he’s been born to lose himself in, that tight slick place that’s been made to take him right in.

This time they both scream and find their release practically in unison and Blake finds he has no strength left to keep his weight from crushing the nimble body beneath him.

He sighs in relief when Adam just wraps his limbs tighter around him and takes it with no trouble.

“I love you so much,” Blake confesses, feeling Adam’s breath hitch with what he should’ve realized long ago, probably as soon as they met and he felt a gentle tickling in the back of his skull, a small sign that tried to let him know he was in front of the mate he’d been looking for decades, “I don’t deserve you but I’ll try my damnedest to make you happy.”

He finds a good position for them to cuddle as his knot goes down, not mad at all that his mate’s only response is to look up at him in awe before nodding off again.

He can’t exactly complain about Adam being speechless—he’d feel rather insulted if he could string a sentence together after that first wave of heat that’s drained pretty much all the energy in the Alpha’s body.

He can’t sleep, not when his mate is so vulnerable that anything could happen to him if Blake let his guard down, but he closes his eyes and gives his muscles time to rest.

***

Adam is still sleeping when he snaps a picture of them snuggling together with his phone, almost giving in and tweeting it when he realizes it’s PG enough but also displays the stark bite on Adam’s skin perfectly as the Omega burrows into his neck in his sleep.

He feeds his mate some crackers after his eyes flutter open and stay half-lidded and unfocused, smiling when even the way Adam takes tiny bites from his fingers is nothing short of cute to him.

They haven’t talked about anything important like where they’re going to live now that they’ve—literally—tied the knot but he’s not worried about it; whatever Adam wants is what they’re going to do, simple as that, and Blake’s priority number one will always be soothing that awful ache he put in his Omega’s heart instead of thanking him and accepting the home Adam built for him there.

He’s stroking Adam’s back softly, lingering in the lower bit where he can feel those sweet dimples right under his palm, when the Omega lifts his head and takes a good, long look at him as if he still couldn’t quite convince himself Blake was there tangled with him.

“You okay?” the lead man rasps and Blake is torn between laughing and kissing him silly because it’s him who should be asking that but he does neither when the Omega’s hand touches the middle of his chest and presses there gently, “Does it still hurt?”

He gawks, astonished, and shakes his head slightly. He can’t believe Adam picked that tiny detail up from him with hardly a clue, can’t believe he’ worried about him when his own pain had to be only a fraction of how awfully raw Adam felt in that exact same place.

“I’m good,” he says, voice wavering a little bit. He pauses to hold and raise Adam’s hand to his lips, kissing the back of it as he locks eyes with the Omega’s hazel, open ones, “You? What can I do, honey? I want it to be better for you too.”

Adam does giggle then, raising an eyebrow at Blake’s apparently dumb question but the fact he can only smell the sweet, soft valley between waves of heat on his mate doesn’t mean he’s going to assume everything’s good and proper now.

“You’re a stupid idiot,” the younger man comments, beaming, “Do I look like I’m in pain now? Do I smell sore to you? Not the good kind of sore, mind you.”

Blake huffs out a laugh and switches their positions on the mattress so he can have Adam under him again, feels drunk with happiness and relief at knowing he didn’t damage his Omega permanently in any way despite of how badly he screwed up.

He scents Adam deeply, burying his face in the crook of his neck and nuzzling his way up to kiss him until his lips gets tingly from it.

Adam gasps when he releases his mouth with a wet sound and burrows into his neck right away and that’s about all he needs to sink into his heat again, to smell his Alpha ready and eager to take him again.

He spreads his legs and breathes in to form words Blake knows he doesn’t deserve to hear yet so he hushes him with another deep kiss and makes sure his mate is dripping wet and throbbing to have him inside before thrusting right in.

Adam keens, calling out for him as he clings to his shoulder blades, and Blake vows not to ever make the mistake of taking him for granted no matter how many times he’s blessed to have him like this.

The pop singer eventually finds the picture he took of them and steals it for his Instagram, sticking out his tongue when Blake pouts and grumbles about not being the one to out their relationship to the world.

“I wanted you first,” his mate says, unrepentant and so forgiving there’s not a trace of resentment in his tone as he points that out, “So yeah, I’m telling everybody first.”

“Fair enough,” Blake concedes, pinning Adam against the nearest wall just to remind him who’s really in charge, never mind the Alpha gives in to his mate’s whims more often than not.

Adam stands on his tiptoes to glide his lips against his, his hands touching Blake’s face through his stubble as lovingly and eagerly as ever, not stiffening one bit when the Alpha’s hands cradle his neck and his fingers brush his nape.

He picks Adam up by the thighs and swirls him around, content as he’s never been in his life.

“You’re gonna show me my place, Alpha?” Adam asks, playful, fingers carding lightly through Blake’s curls.

“You’re damn right I will,” he replies, mockingly serious, just to give his mate an eskimo kiss next, thankful as ever that he managed to get Adam’s love and trust again despite of everything.


End file.
